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Applied Mathematics Colloquium

Friday, October 12, 11:30 am
Cullimore Lecture Hall II
New Jersey Institute of Technology

Controlling Pattern Formation

Mary Silber

Department of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics

Northwestern University

Evanston, IL

Abstract

Faraday waves, of startling beauty and complexity, may form on the surface of a fluid layer when it is shaken up and down. The spatial symmetries of these intricate wave patterns depend on the frequency content of the forcing function in subtle ways that we have tried to illuminate. This in turn suggests ways to control the pattern formation process by an appropriate design of the forcing function. Our analysis is based in equivariant bifurcation theory, while the problems are motivated by laboratory experiments; both will be described.