Spatially localized states in Marangoni convection in binary mixtures

Abstract

Two-dimensional Marangoni convection in binary mixtures is studied in periodic domains with large spatial period in the horizontal. For negative Soret coefficients convection may set in via growing oscillations which evolve into standing waves. With increasing amplitude these waves undergo a transition to traveling waves, and then to more complex waveforms. Out of this state emerge stable stationary spatially localized structures embedded in a background of small amplitude standing waves. The relation of these states to the time-independent spatially localized states that characterize the so-called pinning region is investigated by exploring the stability properties of the latter, and the associated instabilities are studied using direct numerical simulation in time.