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Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 244502 (2008) [4 pages]

Wave Turbulence on the Surface of a Ferrofluid in a Magnetic Field

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François Boyer and Eric Falcon*
Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes (MSC), Université Paris Diderot, CNRS (UMR 7057) 10 rue A. Domon & L. Duquet, 75 013 Paris, France

Received 1 October 2008; published 11 December 2008

See accompanying Physics Synopsis

We report the observation of wave turbulence on the surface of a ferrofluid mechanically forced and submitted to a static normal magnetic field. We show that magnetic surface waves arise only above a critical field. The power spectrum of their amplitudes displays a frequency-power law leading to the observation of a magnetic wave turbulence regime which is experimentally shown to involve a 4-wave interaction process. The existence of the regimes of gravity, magnetic and capillary wave turbulence is reported in the phase space parameters as well as a triple point of coexistence of these three regimes. Most of these features are understood using dimensional analysis or the dispersion relation of the ferrohydrodynamic surface waves.

© 2008 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.244502
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.244502
PACS:
47.35.Tv, 47.27.−i, 47.65.Cb

*eric.falcon@univ-paris-diderot.fr