Helices in the wake of precipitation fronts

Thomas, Shibi and Lagzi, István László and Jr. Molnár, Ferenc and Rácz, Zoltán (2013) Helices in the wake of precipitation fronts. PHYSICAL REVIEW E - STATISTICAL, NONLINEAR AND SOFT MATTER PHYSICS, 88 (2). pp. 1-7. ISSN 1539-3755

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Abstract

A theoretical study of the emergence of helices in the wake of precipitation fronts is presented. The precipitation dynamics is described by the Cahn-Hilliard equation and the fronts are obtained by quenching the system into a linearly unstable state. Confining the process onto the surface of a cylinder and using the pulled-front formalism, our analytical calculations show that there are front solutions that propagate into the unstable state and leave behind a helical structure. We find that helical patterns emerge only if the radius of the cylinder R is larger than a critical value R > Rc, in agreement with recent experiments.

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