This Letter reports experimental measurements of the velocity $v$ of a Taylor vortex front propagating into an unstable Couette state in rotating Couette-Taylor flow and of the wavelength selected by this dynamical process. The data are consistent with a constant velocity $v\propto {\epsilon }^{\frac{1}{2}}$, as predicted from an amplitude equation, but are nearly a factor of 2 smaller than that prediction. Recent dynamic experiments on the onset of Taylor vortex flow by Park, Crawford, and Donnelly are explained in terms of vortex-front propagation.

• Received 14 February 1983

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.50.1583