The Sound of Sonoluminescence

TL;DR

This paper models the sound emission in single bubble sonoluminescence using a nonperturbative approach, revealing that traditional perturbative methods overestimate certain dynamic parameters, while the overall bubble cycle appears unaffected.

Contribution

It introduces a nonperturbative evaluation of sound emission and damping in SBSL, improving accuracy over traditional perturbative models.

Findings

Nonperturbative sound emission calculations differ from perturbative results.

Perturbative models overestimate surface velocity and sound pressure.

Bubble radius-time relation remains similar despite modeling differences.

Abstract

We consider an air bubble in water under conditions of single bubble sonoluminescence (SBSL) and evaluate the emitted sound field nonperturbatively for subsonic gas-liquid interface motion. Sound emission being the dominant damping mechanism, we also implement the nonperturbative sound damping in the Rayleigh-Plesset equation for the interface motion. We evaluate numerically the sound pulse emitted during bubble collapse and compare the nonperturbative and perturbative results, showing that the usual perturbative description leads to an overestimate of the maximal surface velocity and maximal sound pressure. The radius vs. time relation for a full SBSL cycle remains deceptively unaffected.