DOMAINS, DOMAIN-WALLS AND DISLOCATIONS IN CAPILLARY RIPPLES

Metastable domains, i.e. regions with perfect crystal patterns separated by domain walls-chains of dislocations-are found to exist in parametrically excited capillary ripples. Two typical mechanisms responsible for the transition of ensembles of domains to perfect crystals are revealed: collapse of individual domains when the domain wall is a closed contour of annihilating dislocations and merging of neighboring domains due to the dislocation climb to the walls of a cell.