Juggling soliton: A new kind of wave-particle entity

We present an experimental study of a new kind of dual drop-wave entity existing on a localized structure in a water Faraday-wave system. A nonpropagating hydrodynamic soliton can juggle a single drop of similar to 2-3.5 mm diameter for about 102-104 rebounds. By analyzing the drop trajectories, several regimes are observed: periodic bouncing, period doubling, period tripling, a sawtooth state, and chaotic/erratic trajectories. We present evidence that the most stable cases result from detuning of the drop self-oscillations and synchronization with the soliton's sloshing motion. This synchronization ensures stability and thus longer lifetimes. We analyzed the lifetime of the drop, concluding that the periodic behavior, which appears for the lowest-amplitude solitons, is the most stable state. Further analysis shows that lifetimes follow a Weibull distribution.

Automated summary

We conducted an experimental study on a new type of dual drop-wave entity in a localized structure in a water Faraday-wave system. By analyzing the trajectories of the drops, we observed several regimes including periodic bouncing, period doubling, period tripling, a sawtooth state, and chaotic/erratic trajectories. We found that the most stable cases resulted from the synchronization between the drop self-oscillations and the soliton's sloshing motion. This synchronization ensures stability and longer lifetimes. We also analyzed the lifetime of the drops and found that they follow a Weibull distribution.