Abstract
We experimentally investigate the critical behavior of a phase transition between two topologically different turbulent states of electrohydrodynamic convection in nematic liquid crystals. The statistical properties of the observed spatiotemporal intermittency regimes are carefully determined, yielding a complete set of static critical exponents in full agreement with those defining the directed percolation class in dimensions. This constitutes the first clear and comprehensive experimental evidence of an absorbing phase transition in this prominent nonequilibrium universality class.
- Received 28 June 2007
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.234503
©2007 American Physical Society