Mutual Voronoi Tessellation in Spoke Pattern Convection

Stefano Mazzoni, Fabio Giavazzi, Roberto Cerbino, Marzio Giglio, and Alberto Vailati
Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 188104 – Published 6 May 2008

Abstract

Planar cellular networks are made of polygonal cells usually having an average of six sides and trivalent vertices. We analyze the topological properties of spoke patterns observed in the convection of highly viscous fluids. The competition between ascending and descending columns of fluid generates dual networks where on average cells are four sided and vertices tetravalent. This observation identifies a new class of dual networks satisfying a mutual Voronoi relation. The metric of the pattern is dominated by the distance between nearest neighbors vertices of opposite species.

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  • Received 11 October 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.188104

©2008 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Stefano Mazzoni*, Fabio Giavazzi, Roberto Cerbino, Marzio Giglio, and Alberto Vailati

  • CNR-INFM and Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy

  • *Current address: European Space Agency–ESTEC Keplerlaan 1, 2200AG Noordwijk AZ, The Netherlands.
  • Current address: Dipartimento di Chimica, Biochimica e Biotecnologie per la Medicina, Università degli Studi di Milano, via F. Cervi 93, 20090 Segrate (Milano), Italy.
  • Corresponding author. alberto.vailati@unimi.it

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Issue

Vol. 100, Iss. 18 — 9 May 2008

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