Bekki-Nozaki Amplitude Holes in Hidrothermal Nonlinear Waves

Abstract

We present and analyze experimental results on the dynamics of hydrothermal waves occurring in a laterally heated fluid layer. We argue that the large-scale modulations of the waves are governed by a one-dimensional complex Ginzburg-Landau equation (CGLE). We determine quantitatively all the coefficients of this amplitude equation using the localized amplitude holes observed in the experiment, which we show to be well described as Bekki-Nozaki hole solutions of the CGLE.