Breaking Faraday waves: Critical slowing of droplet ejection rates

Parametrically excited surface waves (Faraday waves) are studied near the t hreshold for breaking. The breaking state ejects droplets from wave peaks w hen the applied forcing exceeds an acceleration threshold. The rate of brea king events approaches zero gradually with decreasing acceleration. Two pro perties of these ejections were studied around the ejection threshold. Anal ysis of the ejection rate dependence on acceleration allows a determination of the ejection threshold and an inference about the wave height distribut ion. A Poisson distribution is found for the times between ejections. [S003 1-9007(99)08902-4].