Nonlinear traveling waves in rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection: Stability boundaries and phase diffusion

We present experimental measurements of a sidewall traveling wave in rotating Rayleigh-B\'enard convection. The fluid, water with Prandtl number about 6.3, was confined in a 1-cm-high cylindrical cell with radius-to-height ratio Γ=5. We used simultaneous optical-shadowgraph, heat-transport, and local temperature measurements to determine the stability and characteristics of the traveling-wave state for dimensionless rotation rates 60<Ω<420. The state is well described by the one-dimensional complex Ginzburg-Landau (CGL) equation for which the linear and nonlinear coefficients were determined for Ω=274. The Eckhaus-Benjamin-Feir-stability boundary was established and the phase-diffusion coefficient and nonlinear group velocity were determined in the stable regime. Higher-order corrections to the CGL equation were also investigated.