Soft mode dynamics and spatio-temporal symmetry breaking in a thermo-convective system

Using neutron scattering we have studied the behaviour of an oscillatory soft mode in a thermoconvective liquid crystal. As a function of an applied vertical temperature difference T the behaviour of the soft-mode frequency defines four regimes, separated by cross-over values at which spatio-temporal symmetry is broken. Breaking of time symmetry manifests itself in different phase relations among localized oscillators. Incomplete softening at the convection threshold T _c is interpreted as anharmonic coupling to low-energy, internal director fluctuations in the nematic. Subtracting the anharmonic contribution, the renormalized frequency squared gives a susceptibility critical index for each of the four regimes. The values range between 1.1 and 2.7, indicative of a change of the spatial dimensionality as TT _c. The widths in T of the regimes converge as the Feigenbaum ratio (4.6), and the meaning of this is discussed.Dedicated to Professor Harry Thomas on the occasion of his 60th birthday