English

Two-finger selection theory in the Saffman-Taylor problem

Statistical Mechanics 2016-08-31 v1 chao-dyn Materials Science Chaotic Dynamics Pattern Formation and Solitons patt-sol

Abstract

We find that solvability theory selects a set of stationary solutions of the Saffman-Taylor problem with coexistence of two \it unequal \rm fingers advancing with the same velocity but with different relative widths λ1\lambda_1 and λ2\lambda_2 and different tip positions. For vanishingly small dimensionless surface tension d0d_0, an infinite discrete set of values of the total filling fraction λ=λ1+λ2\lambda = \lambda_1 + \lambda_2 and of the relative individual finger width p=λ1/λ2p=\lambda_1/\lambda_2 are selected out of a two-parameter continuous degeneracy. They scale as λ1/2d02/3\lambda-1/2 \sim d_0^{2/3} and p1/2d01/3|p-1/2| \sim d_0^{1/3}. The selected values of λ\lambda differ from those of the single finger case. Explicit approximate expressions for both spectra are given.

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9909225,
  title  = {Two-finger selection theory in the Saffman-Taylor problem},
  author = {F. X. Magdaleno and J. Casademunt},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9909225},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

4 pages, 3 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-22T12:14:56.041Z