BISTABILITY OF SLOW AND FAST TRAVELING WAVES IN FLUID MIXTURES

The appearance of a new type of fast nonlinear traveling wave states i n binary fluid convection with increasing Soret effect is elucidated a nd the parameter range of their bistability with the common slower one s is evaluated numerically. The bifurcation behavior and the significa ntly different spatiotemporal properties of the different wave states- e.g., frequency, flow structure, and concentration distribution-are de termined and related to each other and to a convenient measure of thei r nonlinearity. This allows one to derive a limit for the applicabilit y of small amplitude expansions. Additionally, a universal scaling beh avior of frequencies and mixing properties is found.