Using theory and numerical simulations, here we describe the early stages of the impact with a velocity $V$ of a drop of radius $R_d$ of a low viscosity liquid such as water against a layer of generic thickness $H$ of the same liquid. Our predictions for the initial velocity $V_t\gg V$ and the diameter $H_t\ll R_d$ of …

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 124001] Published Mon Sep 14, 2026

How fast Arctic ice spreads out and how quickly the floes travel from coarsely resolved environmental data can be predicted by simulating sea ice as a granular medium driven by stochastic winds and using measurements of the local wind and ice properties as input parameters.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 114201] Published Thu Sep 10, 2026

Researchers crushed and heated ice between diamond anvils to confirm the existence of a phase of ice that could be present in the warm mantles of ice giants.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 114101] Published Wed Sep 09, 2026

A perturbative framework for anomalous scaling in turbulence, built on the statistics of Kolmogorov multipliers rather than correlation-function hierarchies, establishes a new analytical route to intermittency that complements traditional zero-mode methods.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 094002] Published Fri Aug 28, 2026

Acoustic levitation enables noncontact manipulation using sound waves. While conventional methods entrap particles at pressure nodes (zero-pressure region surrounded by high pressure), we demonstrate stable acoustic levitation and translation in midair within a high-pressure axial core of a zero-ord…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 094001] Published Mon Aug 24, 2026

Diffusivity-free rotating convection, long theorized to govern planetary and stellar interiors, is experimentally verified for the first time in traditional laboratory-scale Rayleigh-Bénard convection apparatuses.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 094101] Published Mon Aug 24, 2026

Experimental studies of multicomponent droplet evaporation reveal distinct stages, with internal flow shifting from multiple vortices within the droplet to a single toroidal vortex dominating the flow dynamic, departing from the classical single-component picture.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 084002] Published Thu Aug 20, 2026

Though highly impacting our lives, rotating turbulent flows are not well understood. These anisotropic three-dimensional fluctuating flows are governed by different nonlinear processes, each of which can be dominant in a different range of parameters. More than 20 years ago, Galtier used weak wave t…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 084001] Published Tue Aug 18, 2026

A new algorithm combines AI weather forecasts with a physics-based climate model to efficiently characterize rare and dangerous weather events.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 064201] Published Wed Aug 05, 2026

Lagrangian measurements of tracer particle dispersion in stratified turbulence are presented from a large-scale experiment achieving both high buoyancy Reynolds numbers and low Froude numbers—a regime characteristic of oceanic conditions. Stratification has a pronounced effect on the vertical partic…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 064101] Published Tue Aug 04, 2026

Liquid marbles, droplets coated with a granular layer, are highly mobile as particles prevent capillary adhesion to the substrate. Yet their coating creates a static rolling friction, which we measure and model. Motion requires shear within the shell so that it is governed mainly by the grain densit…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 054001] Published Thu Jul 30, 2026

Colloidal transport and filtration in porous media are commonly described by single-collector models that assume an underlying homogeneous structure. We use microfluidic experiments, particle tracking, and simulations to observe pore-scale and macroscopic filtration. We show that colloidal trajector…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 044002] Published Wed Jul 22, 2026

We present evidence of the dynamical hysteretic nature of dissipation in unsteady turbulent flows. Wind tunnel experiments and direct numerical simulations in oscillating flows show that, at stationary mean Reynolds number, the dissipation constant is larger for decelerating flows. Consequently, a p…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 044001] Published Mon Jul 20, 2026

Velocity circulation around closed loops is a fundamental quantity of central interest in the study of the energy cascade in turbulent flows. Recent theoretical and numerical studies have identified circulation as a geometric observable that captures intermittency through the area rule and a distinc…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 024001] Published Tue Jul 07, 2026

We study phase-separating fluid mixtures as they demix in the presence of chemical reactions that maintain them away from thermodynamic equilibrium. We show that in such chemically active emulsions the interplay of chemical reactions, phase separation, and hydrodynamics effects complex self-organiza…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 254001] Published Wed Jun 24, 2026

It is widely assumed that extinction occurs when environmental change outpaces a species’ capacity to adapt. However, this hypothesis lacks support at the scale of global change, in part because the distribution of adaptation rates is unknown. Here, we test this idea by formulating a general model t…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 254201] Published Wed Jun 24, 2026

We adapt the microcanonical framework of equilibrium statistical mechanics to predict the statistics of short linear waves in inhomogeneous moving media. For steady inhomogeneities and background flow, we compute the wave spectrum at any location in the domain based on an ergodic prescription for th…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 244001] Published Thu Jun 18, 2026

We develop a theory that predicts the equilibrium states of a fluid contained in a capillary that has corners. Each section of the tube can take three states: completely wet state where the tube section is completely occupied by the fluid, partially wet state where only the corners are occupied by t…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 224001] Published Mon Jun 01, 2026

We present a combined experimental and numerical investigation of the transition from the classical to the ultimate regime of thermal turbulence in a supergravitational centrifugal convection system. The transition is found to be robust, with the critical Rayleigh number decreasing systematically as…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 214002] Published Thu May 28, 2026

Tracking how two nearly identical turbulent flows decorrelate over time links the dynamical origin of chaotic divergence in fully developed turbulence to intermittent strain-rate fluctuations, suggesting faster than expected mixing and transport in highly turbulent flows

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 214001] Published Wed May 27, 2026

The deformation and rupture of a lipid vesicle due to the forced normal approach of an inclusion are essential for optimizing the design of magnetic giant unilamellar vesicles (GUV) [Malik et al., Nanoscale 17, 13720 (2025)], with implications for active colloid-membrane interactions and cellular-sc…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 204001] Published Wed May 20, 2026

Water drops sliding on hydrophobic surfaces spontaneously separate charges at their rear. It is unclear how this charge separation affects the contact angles of a sliding drop. We slide grounded and insulated drops on hydrophobic surfaces at low capillary numbers ($\le {10}^{-4}$). We find that the drop charg…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 194001] Published Thu May 14, 2026

In a canonical Stokes flow geometry, the Hele-Shaw cell, we show that tunable circulations induced by Lorentz forces in a conducting fluid enable particle control. We reveal that energy-optimal control paths correspond to geodesics of an emergent Riemannian metric defined over the fluid domain, whic…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 184001] Published Thu May 07, 2026

The mechanical response of yield-stress materials below the yield point remains a subject of debate. Two of the most widely used constitutive models for these materials offer fundamentally conflicting views: one permits plastic flow at all stress levels, while the other assumes entirely recoverable …

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 164001] Published Tue Apr 21, 2026

Solids fracture under critical stress, while liquids exhibit continuous deformation. Viscoelastic liquids can fracture like solids when the deformation rate is high enough that the material’s storage modulus $G^{\prime }$ is approximately the same or higher than its loss modulus $G^{\prime \prime }$. Here, we present direct ex…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 124002] Published Thu Mar 26, 2026

Pipe flow is a canonical example where turbulence first appears intermittently in space and time, taking the form of localized structures termed puffs. Turbulence spreads via puff self-replication, which must out-compete puff decays to sustain it. Here we study the self-replication process, a transi…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 124001] Published Tue Mar 24, 2026

Researchers recreate key features of atmospheric turbulence in a meter-sized rotating cylinder.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 114101] Published Fri Mar 20, 2026

The impact of a liquid droplet on a solid surface generates a cylindrical air cavity along the droplet’s central axis and entraps a thin air film underneath, with a liquid film potentially sandwiched in between. We observe that the air cavity produced by impacting a water droplet on superhydrophobic…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 114001] Published Mon Mar 16, 2026

Acoustic imaging is widely used in biomedicine and industrial nondestructive testing, yet its spatial resolution remains fundamentally limited by acoustic diffraction. Despite significant progress in nonlinear harmonic imaging, localization microscopy, and acoustic metamaterials, these approaches fa…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 114002] Published Mon Mar 16, 2026

The year 2024 was the hottest in the modern era, followed by 2023. Do these temperatures signal unexpected changes in the climate system? Writing the global annual mean temperature as the sum of two terms, greenhouse-gas driven climate change and fluctuations due to internal and external variability…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 104201] Published Thu Mar 12, 2026

We study the sedimentation of finite-size inertial particles in a Rayleigh-Taylor-like setup using state-of-the-art direct numerical simulations. The falling particles are observed to produce two distinct regions: a leading mixing layer with a linear concentration profile followed by a bulk region o…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 104003] Published Wed Mar 11, 2026

We show theoretically that an initially homogeneous planar Couette flow of a concentrated polymeric fluid is linearly unstable to the growth of two-dimensional (2D) perturbations, within two widely used constitutive models: the Johnson-Segalman model and the Rolie-Poly model. We perform 2D direct no…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 104001] Published Mon Mar 09, 2026

A novel approach to constructing kinetic models is proposed on the basis of the separation of local and nonlocal contributions to particle interaction. The method results in a generic kinetic equation for complex fluid systems, amenable to efficient numerical realization. The main obstruction to cau…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 104002] Published Mon Mar 09, 2026

A statistical-physics-based analysis of the full life cycle of atmospheric rivers finds universal signatures of self-organized criticality.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 094201] Published Mon Mar 02, 2026

An oil droplet within a watery fluid becomes nonspherical at certain temperatures—reversibly transforming from a hexagon to a six-pointed star.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 084002] Published Fri Feb 27, 2026

Experiments with superfluid helium in nanofluidic channels show that quasi‑2D quantum turbulence decays with a universal fast transient followed by a slower, geometry‑dependent regime.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 084003] Published Fri Feb 27, 2026

Classical rupture is attributed to molecular (van der Waals) forces acting at nanometric thicknesses. Nonetheless, micron-thick liquid sheets routinely perforate far above the scale where these molecular forces act, yet the mechanism that selects opening versus healing has remained unclear. Using di…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 084001] Published Tue Feb 24, 2026

We investigate the transport dynamics of elongated particles in cellular vortical flows that undergo spatial oscillations over time. Experimental flow visualizations reveal mixed flow fields with chaotic and elliptic regions coexisting. Surprisingly, the particle transport rate does not increase mon…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 074001] Published Wed Feb 18, 2026

Separate exact scaling laws are derived for the cascades of the kinetic and magnetic energy in incompressible homogeneous isotropic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence, and validated by numerical simulations. The third-order moments exhibit linear scaling with respect to the spatial displacement sc…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 064001] Published Tue Feb 10, 2026

Researchers have used an artificial-intelligence tool to reveal long-sought equations that describe small-scale features in 2D turbulent systems.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 064201] Published Tue Feb 10, 2026

We introduce a fiber-based method to directly measure turbulent energy dissipation. Combining original measurements of the full-body rotation—tumbling and spinning—of short, Kolmogorov-scale fibers in turbulent channel flow with direct numerical simulations using a point-fiber model, we show that th…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 054001] Published Tue Feb 03, 2026

Flow experiments and streamline analysis systematically explore the hydrodynamic spin-coupling of rotors, identifying the conditions in which either corotating or counterrotating modes emerge.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 024001] Published Tue Jan 13, 2026

An advanced torrential loss function for machine-learning-based precipitation forecasting outperforms conventional functions in forecast accuracy.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 024201] Published Tue Jan 13, 2026

We study at the laboratory scale the rupture of thin floating sheets made of a brittle material under a wave-induced mechanical forcing. We show that the rupture occurs where the curvature is maximum and the breakup threshold strongly depends on the wave properties. We observe that the critical stre…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 014101] Published Tue Jan 06, 2026

A phenomenon reminiscent of a common experience with an umbrella inspires the development of a potential microfluidics component.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 234002] Published Fri Dec 05, 2025

We experimentally investigate the impact of a flat, horizontal disk onto a boiling liquid, i.e., a liquid in thermal equilibrium with its vapor phase. We observe exceptionally high impact pressures deviating strongly from the inertial scaling found for impact in a noncondensable environment, coincid…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 234001] Published Mon Dec 01, 2025

The breakup of a capillary jet into drops is believed to be governed by initial disturbances on the surface of the jet that grow exponentially. The disturbances are often assumed to be due to external sources of noise, to turbulence, or to imperfections of the nozzle. Here we demonstrate that the in…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 214001] Published Mon Nov 17, 2025

Inspired by recent experimental observations of a harmonically excited elastic foil hovering near a wall while supporting substantial weight, we develop a theoretical framework that describes the underlying physical effects. Using elastohydrodynamic lubrication theory, we quantify how the dynamic de…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 214002] Published Mon Nov 17, 2025

Turbulence serves as a catalyst for rapid bubble dispersion, increasing the residence time of bubbles in the ocean and shaping the crucial process of mass transfer during air-sea interactions. In this Letter, we experimentally investigate the pair dispersion of bubbles in turbulence. Our findings hi…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 214003] Published Mon Nov 17, 2025

Solute transport in a channel has important implications in industrial processes, biomechanics, and drug delivery. When flow is driven down a channel by a pressure gradient, solute is spread axially by shear and laterally by molecular diffusion. The combination causes the effective axial diffusivity…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 204001] Published Wed Nov 12, 2025

Wall-attached bubbles can produce repeated jets under gentle ultrasound stimulation through the Faraday instability. We identify three distinct jetting regimes defined by the jetting frequency and the bubble surface topology. We demonstrate that these jets form via flow-focusing singularities follow…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 204002] Published Wed Nov 12, 2025

Kinetic frictional forces resisting droplet motion often appear to be separate from surface wettability and adhesive forces. Here we show that such friction arises from a simple combination of the contact angle hysteresis and adhesive force. We show theoretically, and confirm using tilt angle experi…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 204003] Published Wed Nov 12, 2025

The transition from distributed damage to strain localization in rocks during brittle creep remains mechanistically unclear. Through uniaxial creep experiments on polystyrene plates with a preexisting closed crack, we demonstrate that low-stress creep is governed by frictional slip with shear stress…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 204101] Published Wed Nov 12, 2025

Molecular dynamics simulations and theory show how pressure energy, together with surface tension, drives coalescence-induced nanobubble release, offering fresh insights for enhancing gas evolution in key physicochemical processes.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 194001] Published Fri Nov 07, 2025

Several physical variables and fluid systems exhibit memory effects arising from their internal dynamics and interactions with external forcings. Various existing techniques are either complex or face limitations due to the usual nonlinear nature of the time series, typically overestimating memory t…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 164201] Published Tue Oct 14, 2025

New experiments show that adding polymers to a fluid can reduce energy dissipation by suppressing small eddies.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 154001] Published Wed Oct 08, 2025

When a drop contacts and absorbs in a thin porous surface, it can wick radially outward. This phenomenon is exploited in cooling textiles, but also complicates forensic stain analysis. The distance that the liquid spreads and the time it takes to evaporate are coupled, yet the consequence of this co…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 154002] Published Wed Oct 08, 2025

An atomically smooth surface that oscillates vertically can host drops that either bounce or hover in place, depending on the oscillation frequency.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 144001] Published Thu Oct 02, 2025

Direct numerical simulations of incompressible homogeneous and isotropic turbulence in a periodic box show that the mean dissipation rate of the kinetic energy approaches zero as the Reynolds number goes to infinity, violating the classical zeroth law of turbulence but compatible with the Kolmogorov 4/5 law.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 134001] Published Mon Sep 22, 2025

We reveal a nonlinear magnetic dynamo in a Taylor-Couette flow at small magnetic Prandtl numbers $Pm\le 1$, which has been previously believed to exist only at higher $Pm\gtrsim 10$ in this flow. The amplitude of initial perturbations, $Pm$, and domain aspect ratio play a key role in the onset and evolution of the …

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 124001] Published Tue Sep 16, 2025

Experiments on freezing saltwater have teased apart flow dynamics inside ice pores, offering a possible boost to climate models’ predictive power.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 104201] Published Fri Sep 05, 2025

The laminar-turbulent transition in straight pipes is believed to occur through a continuous nonequilibrium phase transition in the directed percolation universality class. However, in curved pipes or in the presence of body forces it is possible to observe a discontinuous transition and other pheno…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 104001] Published Wed Sep 03, 2025

Liquid foams exhibit menisci whose lengths range from hundreds of microns in microfoams to several centimeters in macroscopic bubble arrangements. These menisci are known to thin under gravity until reaching a steady thickness profile, where hydrostatic and capillary pressures are balanced. However,…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 094001] Published Fri Aug 29, 2025

Meniscus oscillations at interfaces between liquids, solids, and air significantly impact fluid dynamics and control. While idealized models exist, experimental data on capillary–gravity wave scattering involving meniscus effects remain limited. In this Letter, we systematically measured wave transm…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 084001] Published Thu Aug 21, 2025

Gaining a fundamental understanding of turbulent flows of dilute polymer solutions has been a challenging and outstanding problem for a long time. In this Letter, we examine homogeneous, isotropic polymeric turbulence at large Reynolds and Deborah numbers through direct numerical simulations. While …

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 074001] Published Wed Aug 13, 2025

We show that activity and broken fore-aft shape symmetry enable microswimmers to cross streamlines in nonuniform shear, a key yet overlooked factor in active cross-stream migration. Using a model of flagellated microswimmers in microchannel flow, we find that hydrodynamic coupling and flagellar flex…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 054001] Published Wed Jul 30, 2025

Oscillating sessile droplets on a plane, crucial in industrial applications like inkjet printing, spray cooling, and antifogging, present a long-standing challenge in determining viscous damping. Existing solutions are limited to first-order asymptotic approximations of hemispherical droplets, accou…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 024001] Published Tue Jul 08, 2025

We prove analytically that the two fundamental rheological equations for (elastic) disc suspensions and long flexible polymers, the so-called Oldroyd-A and -B models, respectively, predict the same flow and total stress fields in any planar incompressible flow. We illustrate this equivalence for cre…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 024002] Published Tue Jul 08, 2025

We study the effects of polymer additives on pseudoturbulence induced by a swarm of bubbles rising in a quiescent fluid. We find that, even in the absence of background shear, beyond a critical polymer concentration, the energy spectra of velocity fluctuations in bubble-induced turbulence decay more…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 024003] Published Tue Jul 08, 2025

Experiments with turbulent waves show that energy spreads from small to large scales, producing a steady-state regime that can be described using classical thermodynamics.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 024004] Published Tue Jul 08, 2025

An investigation of internal gravity waves provides valuable insights into the dynamics of stratified media such as ocean and atmospheric systems.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 014101] Published Tue Jul 01, 2025

Experiments using 3D Lagrangian tracking are used to investigate Kolmogorov scaling below the bubble size in bubble-induced turbulence (BIT). Second- and third-order structure functions reveal approximate Kolmogorov scaling for homogeneous bubble swarms. A new scaling for the kinetic energy dissipat…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 244001] Published Fri Jun 20, 2025

When a column of water drains from a vertical tube, it often leaves behind a trailing film that forms intricate, axisymmetric liquid structures. Using high-speed imaging and first-principles modeling, we investigate the formation and breakup of these fluted films and demonstrate that their diverse m…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 224001] Published Tue Jun 03, 2025

An immiscible coating on bubbles bursting at a gas-liquid interface can influence the characteristics of a resulting jet, and thus could also influence the aerosolizing of contaminants and other species at the surface of a fluid.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 214001] Published Wed May 28, 2025

The thinning of liquid sheets and the resulting capillary waves due to surfactant deposition are relevant to understanding how bubbles burst, with implications for the environment, health, and industry. Here, a similarity solution is obtained, which describes the sheet thinning and capillary waves. …

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 214002] Published Wed May 28, 2025

Silicate melts not only govern key processes in the Earth’s early evolution, but also significantly influence its interior dynamics today. ${\mathrm{MgSiO}}_3$, a primary component of silicate melts, undergoes significant structural changes and exhibits complex macroscopic properties from the Earth’s surface to t…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 204101] Published Thu May 22, 2025

We study the self-organization of turbulence in a geophysically motivated two-dimensional fluid with local interactions. Using simulations and theory, we show that the out-of-equilibrium flux to small scales imposes a constraint on the large-scale emergent flow. Consequently, a rich phase diagram of…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 204001] Published Tue May 20, 2025

We resolve the dewetting dynamics of water films on partially wetting surfaces at the microscopic scale and highlight its distinctions from liquid wetting. Fast dewetting occurring at the millisecond scale is dominated by capillary and inertial forces, obeying a power law with a wettability-independ…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 194001] Published Mon May 12, 2025

Soft materials are ubiquitous in technological applications that require deformability, for instance, in flexible, water-repellent coatings. However, the wetting properties of prestrained soft materials are only beginning to be explored. Here we study the sliding dynamics of droplets on prestrained …

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 184001] Published Tue May 06, 2025

Spatial pattern formation can be a signal for tipping points and abrupt transitions in complex systems. In wall shear flows, the homogeneous turbulent state is disconnected from the laminar one and disappears in a tipping catastrophe scenario. It, however, linearly destabilizes before tipping, givin…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 154001] Published Wed Apr 16, 2025

We introduce a minimal model of a swimmer without body deformation based on force and torque dipoles which allows accurate and efficient 3D Navier-Stokes calculations. Our model can reproduce swimmer propulsion for a large range of Reynolds numbers and generate wake vortices in the inertial regime, …

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 134002] Published Thu Apr 03, 2025

The messy breakup of a liquid droplet that occurs when it hits a surface can be suppressed by giving the droplet an electrical charge.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 134001] Published Tue Apr 01, 2025

Deep in Earth’s crust, pressure exceeds 1000 times the atmospheric pressure. Water still flows under these conditions, but experiences dramatic changes in structure and fluidity. Using combined dynamic and inelastic light scattering techniques, we simultaneously measure the shear and bulk viscositie…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 134101] Published Tue Apr 01, 2025

The spontaneous periodic oscillations of underwater bubbles are typically confined to a 1D direction or within a 2D plane, whereas realizing 3D autonomous motion of bubbles remains challenging. In this Letter, we present experimental observations of a 3D-periodic orbiting bubble, produced by directi…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 104004] Published Fri Mar 14, 2025

Interfacial energy dissipation during stick-slip motion of a liquid drop on a nonconductive polymer substrate is shown to lead to an irreversible increase in electrical charge. This previously unobserved phenomenon occurs during surface wetting, in contrast to the previously reported charge separati…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 104002] Published Tue Mar 11, 2025

The dynamics of drop impact on a rigid surface strongly depends on the droplet’s velocity, its size, and its material properties. The main characteristics are the droplet’s force exerted on the surface and its maximal spreading radius. The crucial question is how do they depend on the (dimensionless…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 104003] Published Tue Mar 11, 2025

Rayleigh-Bénard convection is investigated with sulfur hexafluoride (${\mathrm{SF}}_6$) in the vicinity of its critical point. In the supercritical domain, direct measurements of the heat flux $Q$ as a function of the temperature difference $\mathrm{\Delta }T$ are consistent with the usual scaling laws of single-phase turbulent con…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 104001] Published Mon Mar 10, 2025

Lift force of viscous origin is widespread across disciplines, from mechanics to biology. Here, we present the first direct measurement of the lift force acting on a particle moving in a viscous fluid along the liquid interface that separates two liquids. The force arises from the coupling between t…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 094001] Published Fri Mar 07, 2025

Dissolution of fractured and porous media introduces a positive feedback between fluid flow and reactant transport, leading to the emergence of pronounced, fingerlike channels. We investigate the formation of these structures using a microfluidic Hele-Shaw cell with a soluble bottom. Our experiments…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 094101] Published Tue Mar 04, 2025

Experiments show that iron’s crystal lattice expands to incorporate helium.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 084101] Published Tue Feb 25, 2025

We present an experimental study of turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a cylindrical cell. With the addition of a tiny amount of long-chain polymers, we find, surprisingly, that the large-scale flow structure possesses axisymmetric topologies, rather than the well-known single-roll large-scale …

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 084001] Published Mon Feb 24, 2025

The scale-invariant inverse energy cascade is a hallmark of 2D turbulence, with its theoretical energy spectrum observed in both direct numerical simulations (DNS) and laboratory experiments. Under this scale-invariance assumption, the effective diffusivity of a 2D turbulent flow is dimensionally co…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 074101] Published Fri Feb 21, 2025

Phenomena in diverse contexts such as wetting, biological assembly, and manufacturing are attributed to the three-phase line tension. However, decades of line tension estimates based on contact angles of droplets controversially span 6 orders of magnitude, raising the question of which measurements …

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 074001] Published Thu Feb 20, 2025

A novel mechanism that underlies the peculiar cascading freezing of multiple supercooled droplets on surfaces is reported. The initial ice crystal growth in large droplets is communicated via connected water nanofilms to smaller droplets. Using high-speed imaging, we show that the presence of a wate…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 064001] Published Fri Feb 14, 2025

We find the turbulent energy spectrum of weakly interacting 2D internal gravity waves using the full, nonhydrostatic dispersion relation. This spectrum is an exact solution of a regularized kinetic equation, from which the zero-frequency shear modes have been excised by a careful limiting process. T…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 054101] Published Fri Feb 07, 2025

We show that capillary waves can exist at the boundary between miscible coflowing fluids. We unveil that the interplay between transient interfacial stresses and confinement drives the progressive transition from the well-known inertial regime, characterized by a frequency independent wave number, $k\dots$

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 054001] Published Tue Feb 04, 2025

Optimal path planning and control of microscopic devices navigating in fluid environments is essential for applications ranging from targeted drug delivery to environmental monitoring. These tasks are challenging due to the complexity of microdevice-flow interactions. We introduce a closed-loop cont…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 044001] Published Wed Jan 29, 2025

Experiments have shown that surfactant introduced to a liquid-filled maze can find the solution path. We reveal how the maze-solving dynamics arise from interactions between the added surfactant and endogenous surfactant present at the liquid surface. We simulate the dynamics using a nonlinear model…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 034001] Published Thu Jan 23, 2025

We show that bodies with two planes of symmetry can display a range of behaviors even without inertia. Any such body supports a conserved quantity in its dynamics, and is either a settler, a drifter or a flutterer, depending only on its shape. At large time, settlers and drifters, respectively, fall…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 014002] Published Tue Jan 07, 2025

We report an instability exhibited by a fluid system when coupling two distinct types of waves, both linearly damped. While none of them is unstable on its own, they amplify one another, resulting in a previously unreported convective instability. An external excitation is used to induce a parametri…

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 014001] Published Mon Jan 06, 2025