ASSOCIATIVE MEMORY OF A DYNAMIC SYSTEM - THE EXAMPLE OF THE CONVECTION INSTABILITY

It is shown that a fluid heated from below can reconstruct an incomplete initial pattern in the sense of an associative memory. This property of the fluid is based on the formal similarity between the order parameter equations of the fluid close to its instability point and those used in pattern recognition by means of synergetic computers. Under certain external conditions the system may additionally show multistable behaviour and discriminate between two offered initial patterns with different symmetries, such as a square and a rectangle.