Lensing Capillary Waves with a Meniscus

TL;DR

This paper investigates how capillary waves are affected by a meniscus, revealing lensing phenomena that could impact biological communication and surface wave interactions.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of lensing of capillary waves by a meniscus, a novel surface tension dominated wave interaction mechanism.

Findings

Capillary waves are significantly altered by a surrounding meniscus.

Lensing phenomena are observed when waves scatter off objects with a meniscus.

Implications for biological surface communication are discussed.

Abstract

The propagation of water waves is altered when interacting with curved surfaces. Here, we consider the problem of capillary waves interacting with a 3D meniscus. We show that when capillary waves scatter off an object surrounded by a meniscus, the resulting wavefield can be drastically altered and lensing phenomena is observed. Our results are not only an important step in surface tension dominated wave interactions, but may have implications in the biological communication of surface dwelling animals.