skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Search for: All records

Creators/Authors contains: "Liu, Nicholas"

Note: When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
What is a DOI Number?

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

  1. We report the results of a theoretical investigation of the stability of a hydrodynamic analogue of Landau levels, specifically circular orbits arising when a millimetric droplet self-propels along the surface of a vibrating, rotating liquid bath. Our study elucidates the form of the stability diagram characterising the critical memory at which circular orbits destabilise, and the form of instability. Particular attention is given to rationalising observations reported in prior experimental works, including the prevalence of resonant wobbling instabilities, in which the instability frequency is approximately twice the orbital frequency. We also explore the physical mechanism responsible for the onset of instability. Specifically, we compare the efficacy of different heuristic arguments proposed in prior studies, including propositions that the most unstable orbits arise when their radii correspond to the zeros of Bessel functions or when their associated wave intensity is extremised. We establish a new relation between orbital stability and the mean wave field, which supersedes existing heuristic arguments and suggests a rationale for the alternate wobbling and monotonic instabilities arising at onset as the orbital radius is increased progressively. 
    more » « less