THE ROLE OF SPONTANEOUS SYMMETRY BREAKING IN THE INITIAL FORMATION OF SKI MOGULS
THEODORA WORLEDGE *
Almaden Research Institute, 7028 Burnside Drive, San Jose, CA 95120, USA.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
A numerical simulation was used to investigate initial ski mogul formation. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the acceleration and momentum transfer that occur while traveling down the face of a mogul and the choices skiers make to ski around accumulations of snow were not necessary to create distinct mogul structures. Rather, random fluctuations due to the skiers’ paths were sufficient to form moguls. This result is discussed in the context of spontaneous symmetry breaking.
Keywords: Pattern formation, spontaneous symmetry breaking, ski moguls, numerical simulation