Pattern Formation in Magnetic Fluids

Abstract

Synergetics, the subject of this symposium, is concerned with the spontaneous formation of well organized spatial, temporal, or spatio-temporal structures. The topic leads to problems of evolution, and whether processes of self-organization may be found in simple systems of the unanimated world [1]. In recent years it has become increasingly evident that numerous examples of self-organization exist in physical and chemical systems, and a search has developed to identify basic principles that may be common among the systems. A system that has contributed numbers of famous examples is fluid dynamics, and another is ferromagnetism. In the same spirit, in the following, we examine phenomena resulting from the interaction of fluid dynamics with ferromagnetism as displayed by magnetic fluids. It will be seen that the fluid magnetic examples contribute additional objects to the synergetics collection of self-organizing structures.