Soliton/Falaco Soliton


 * FALACO SOLITONS Cosmic strings in a swimming pool, R. M. Kiehn, arXiv, 25 Jan 2001.

R.M. Kiehn demonstrates a Falaco soliton (video), the upload information links to Falaco Solitons - Black holes in a Swimming Pool, R. M. Kiehn, Physics Department, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77004 USA. (c) CSDC Inc. 2006


 * Keihn: This explanation of the optics was reached about 30 minutes after I first became aware of the Soliton structures, while standing in the pristine white marble swimming pool of an old MIT roommate, Jose Haraldo Falçao, under the brilliant Brazilian sunshine in Rio de Janeiro. At MIT, Haraldo was always called Falaco, after he scored 2 goals in a MIT soccer match, and the local newspapers misprinted his name. Hence I dubbed the topological defect structures, Falaco Solitons. Haraldo will get his place in history. I knew that finally I had found a visual, easily reproduced, experiment that could be used to show people the importance and utility of Topological Defects in the physical sciences....

Kiehn's work was published in New Developments in Soliton Research, edited by L. V. Chen, Nova Publishers, Jan 1, 2006.