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Competition of periodic and homogeneous modes in extended dynamical systems
1Physikalisches Institut der Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
Physical Review Letters
|January 22, 2002
Abstract:
Despite their simple structure, spatially homogeneous modes can participate directly in pattern-formation processes. This is demonstrated by new experimental and theoretical results for thermo- and electroconvection in planar nematic liquid crystals, where two distinct homogeneous modes, twist and splay distortions of the director field, emerge. Their nonlinear excitation is due to certain spontaneous symmetry-breaking bifurcations.