Quenching of long-wavelength non-equilibrium temperature fluctuations in a thermophilic colloidal suspension heated from below

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the spatial and temporal correlation properties of non-equilibrium temperature and concentration fluctuations in a colloidal suspension of strongly thermophilic silica nanoparticles in water, characterized by a separation ratio largely smaller than −1. When the system is adiabatically heated from below, convection is suppressed, even above the Rayleigh–Bénard threshold, because nanoparticles accumulate at the bottom boundary and create a stabilizing density gradient. Under these conditions, we show that long-wavelength temperature fluctuations are quenched by the stabilizing concentration profile. Meanwhile, the macroscopic temperature gradient largely influences concentration fluctuations, reducing their overstabilization at small wave vectors. The strong thermophilic behavior of the suspension leads to a negative cross correlation between temperature and concentration fluctuations, producing a distinctive dip in the power spectrum at small wave vectors.