arXiv · 1410.8177
Rayleigh-Bénard Instability in Graphene
Abstract
Motivated by the observation that electrons in graphene, in the hydrodynamic regime of transport, can be treated as a two-dimensional ultra-relativistic gas with very low shear viscosity, we examine the existence of the Rayleigh-Bénard instability in a massless electron-hole plasma. Firstly, we perform a linear stability analysis, derive the leading contributions to the relativistic Rayleigh number, and calculate the critical value above which the instability develops. By replacing typical values for graphene, such as thermal conductivity, shear viscosity, temperature, and sample sizes, we find that the instability might be experimentally observed in the near future. Additionally, we have performed simulations for vanishing reduced chemical potential and compare the measured critical Rayleigh number with the theoretical prediction, finding good agreement.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Oliver Furtmaier, Miller Mendoza, Ilya Karlin, Sauro Succi, Hans Jürgen Herrmann. 2015-01-15. Rayleigh-Bénard Instability in Graphene. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.91.085401
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.