Ballistic and diffusive dynamics in a two-dimensional ideal gas of macroscopic chaotic Faraday waves.
We have constructed a macroscopic driven system of chaotic Faraday waves whose statistical mechanics, we find, are surprisingly simple, mimicking those of a thermal gas. We use real-time tracking of a single floating probe, energy equipartition, and the Stokes-Einstein relation to define and measure a pseudotemperature and diffusion constant and then self-consistently determine a coefficient of viscous friction for a test particle in this pseudothermal gas. Because of its simplicity, this system can serve as a model for direct experimental investigation of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, much as the ideal gas epitomizes equilibrium statistical mechanics.
Materials Science Institute and Department of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA.
Kyle J
KJ
Welch
Materials Science Institute and Department of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA.
Isaac
I
Hastings-Hauss
Materials Science Institute and Department of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA.
Raghuveer
R
Parthasarathy
Materials Science Institute and Department of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA.
Eric I
EI
Corwin