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How to control the formation of natural patterns?
Kirsten Martens
140 Av. de la physique BP 87
F-38402 Saint Martin d'Hères
France
Phone: +33 4 76 51 47 41
Fax: +33 4 76 51 45 44
E-mail:
Our aim is to find control mechanisms for naturally appearing patterns, that are created in reaction-diffusion systems. If the reacting agents are initially separated in space, the characteristics of the appearing reaction front may be influenced in several ways, for example by the choice of the geometry:
Reaction-diffusion fronts with inhomogeneous initial conditions
or by guiding the front-motion:
Guiding-fields for phase-separation: Controlling Liesegang patterns
Recently we proposed a control tool based on the use of electric currents, allowing for a direct control of the production in the wake of the front. As a result we achieve a flexible control of the pattern formation process.
Designed Patterns: Flexible Control of Precipitation through Electric Currents
In case the
movie doesn‘t show, you may download it here:
Main collaborators
Michel Droz (University of Geneva)
Zoltán Rácz (Eötvös University)
Olivier Pierre-Louis (ILM, University Lyon 1)
This little movie shows the experimental verification of the control by electric currents. Precipitation occurs in a band pattern with a well-defined length scale.
