Thermal convection in colloidal suspensions with negative separation ratio.

Thermal convection in colloidal suspensions of nanosized particles is investigated. Representative examples for such materials are ferrofluids, but since we do not imply any external magnetic field, the description applies to nonmagnetic suspensions as well. With the grain size being large on molecular length scales, the particle mobility is extremely small, allowing to disregard the concentration dynamics in most cases. However, due to the pronounced Soret effect of these materials in combination with a considerable solutal expansion, this cannot be done when thermal convection is under consideration. Here we consider the case when the separation ratio (the Soret coefficient) is negative. This case reveals a much richer variety of phenomena than that of positive separation ratio. In particular, for heating from below we find a linear oscillatory instability, whose amplitude, however, relaxes to zero on the long turn and is thus transient only and, at higher Rayleigh numbers, a finite amplitude stationary instability coexistent with the linearly stable convection-free state. By heating from above short-length-scale convective structures occur, whose wavelength depends on the Rayleigh number.