NEUTRALLY STABLE FRONTS OF SLOW CONVECTIVE TRAVELING WAVES

I report experiments on a new confined state of convection, in which slow traveling rolls exist in a region of arbitrary length in a rectangular cell, separated from the rest by a front that can be motionless. In contrast to other confined states observed in this system, the convective state behind this front is well understood on the basis of the Navier-Stokes equations. This suggests that the stability of the front can be posed as a separate theoretical problem. © 1990 The American Physical Society.