Sonoluminescing bubbles rectify argon: Comparing predictions with latest experiments

Abstract

For the ASA meeting in Hawaii in 1996, the Session Chair, Robert Apfel, posed a challenge to the theoreticians working on single-bubble sonoluminescence (SBSL): experiments should be suggested and predictions made. The crucial predictions following from the hydrodynamical/chemical approach to SBSL were phase diagrams for SBSL bubbles, the rectification of argon in SBSL air bubbles, the existence of stable nitrogen bubbles, and the ejection of chemical reaction products from the SBSL bubble [S. Hilgenfeldt, D. Lohse, and M. Brenner, Phys. Fluids 8, 2808 (1996); D. Lohse et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 1359 (1997); D. Lohse and S. Hilgenfeldt, J. Chem. Phys. 107, 6986 (1997)]. Meanwhile, many beautiful experiments have been done by Crum and Matula, by Apfel and Ketterling, by Gaitan and Holt, by Suslick et al., by Barber, Putterman et al., and by many others. In this talk a comparison between these experiments and above predictions is presented.