IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v2y2011i1d10.1038_ncomms1290.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fractal fronts of diffusion in microgravity

Author

Listed:
  • Alberto Vailati

    (Università degli Studi di Milano)

  • Roberto Cerbino

    (Università degli Studi di Milano
    Biochimica e Biotecnologie per la Medicina, Università degli Studi di Milano)

  • Stefano Mazzoni

    (Università degli Studi di Milano
    European Space Agency, Human Spaceflight Directorate)

  • Christopher J. Takacs

    (University of California at Santa Barbara)

  • David S. Cannell

    (University of California at Santa Barbara)

  • Marzio Giglio

    (Università degli Studi di Milano)

Abstract

Spatial scale invariance represents a remarkable feature of natural phenomena. A ubiquitous example is represented by miscible liquid phases undergoing diffusion. Theory and simulations predict that in the absence of gravity diffusion is characterized by long-ranged algebraic correlations. Experimental evidence of scale invariance generated by diffusion has been limited, because on Earth the development of long-range correlations is suppressed by gravity. Here we report experimental results obtained in microgravity during the flight of the FOTON M3 satellite. We find that during a diffusion process a dilute polymer solution exhibits scale-invariant concentration fluctuations with sizes ranging up to millimetres, and relaxation times as large as 1,000 s. The scale invariance is limited only by the finite size of the sample, in agreement with recent theoretical predictions. The presence of such fluctuations could possibly impact the growth of materials in microgravity.

Suggested Citation

  • Alberto Vailati & Roberto Cerbino & Stefano Mazzoni & Christopher J. Takacs & David S. Cannell & Marzio Giglio, 2011. "Fractal fronts of diffusion in microgravity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 2(1), pages 1-5, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:2:y:2011:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1290
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1290
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1290
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms1290?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:2:y:2011:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1290. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.