As the year comes to an end, the Dispersive Hydrodynamics Laboratory
reflects on a successful 2016. The lab was involved in Applied Mathematicsā first show, a 30+ year CU tradition. CU Wizards is a monthly, interactive show for children. The program brings the āmagic of scienceā to kids and their families to further public science education and interest. The lab put on, a demonstration on the ways nonlinear waves help us understand systems as diverse as the ocean, atmosphere, and lasers. The entire lab was involved with the event and can be seen doing the wave on of their show.
In addition to papers published in Nature Communications and Physical Review Letters earlier this year, the lab published several more notable papers in 2016. accepted another paper from the lab members titled, . In this article, Dr. Ezio Iacocca, Professor Mark Hoefer, and Dr. Thomas Silva (NIST) showed that the equations describing magnetization dynamics for a solid-state thin-film ferromagnet (i.e., a sheet of magnetic material about five nanometers thick) can be formulated as a dispersive hydrodynamic set of equations. In contrast to other dispersive fluids explored by the lab, magnets are peculiar in which Galilean invariance is broken. That means the physics are reference-frame dependent, an effect otherwise observed in relativity. This work opens up a new frontier for magnetics research, both from a fundamental physics and a dispersive fluid perspective.
has also accepted a paper from the lab. Ā The paper, , was co-authored by Patrick Sprenger and Professor Hoefer. They found new dispersive shock wave structures admitted by the Kawahara equation, a universal model for dispersive hydrodynamic systems with high order dispersion. Such phenomena occur in various physical systems including ultra-shallow water flow, nonlinear fiber optics and spin orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates. The shock waves that were observed in this work had been observed numerically but no theory existed to describe these non-classical structures. This work motivates a new shallow water experiment that is currently under development in the Dispersive Hydrodynamics Laboratory.
Additionally, Michelle Maiden and Professor Hoefer were published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A. Ā Their paper, , theoretically identifies new coherent wave structures called envelope solitons. In their next project, they will attempt to observe these solitons in experiments with viscous fluid conduits.
This year also brought about two substantial review articles. , authored by Dr. Gennady El (Loughborough University) and Professor Hoefer, appeared in a of Physical D on dispersive hydrodynamics. The article surveys the mathematics behind much of the labās research. A second review article by Dr. El, Professor Hoefer, and Michael Shearer (NC State University), , will appear in in early 2017. This article describes non-classical shock waves in dispersive fluids with and without dissipation.
The Dispersive Hydrodynamics Laboratory had an impressive year, full of diverse activities and research. The Applied Mathematics Department is excited for the labās future in 2017. For this upcoming year, the lab is seeking interested, enthusiastic undergraduate researchers. Contact Professor Mark Hoefer for details. If you are interested in learning more about the lab, please visit the labās new webpage.
Written by Danielle Hawley