Synchronization of wave-propelled capillary spinners.

Abstract

When a millimetric body is placed atop a vibrating liquid bath, the relative motion between the object and the interface generates outward-propagating waves with an associated momentum flux. Prior work has shown that isolated chiral objects, referred to as spinners, can thus rotate steadily in response to their self-generated wavefield. Here, we consider the case of two cochiral spinners held at a fixed spacing from one another but otherwise free to interact hydrodynamically through their shared fluid substrate. Two identical spinners are able to synchronize their rotation, with their equilibrium phase difference sensitive to their spacing and initial conditions, and even cease to rotate when the coupling becomes sufficiently strong. Nonidentical spinners can also find synchrony provided their intrinsic differences are not too disparate. A hydrodynamic wave model of the spinner interaction is proposed, recovering all salient features of the experiment. In all cases, the spatially periodic nature of the capillary wave coupling is directly reflected in the emergent equilibrium behaviors.