Interaction of Reaction-Diffusion Fronts and Marangoni Flow on the Interface of a Deep Fluid

It is shown that interfacial solitary structures (spots) generated by a bistable chemical reaction can be stabilized by Marangoni flow preventing the spread of a dynamically favorable state with a higher surface tension. The solutions are constructed using the method of matched asymptotic expansions to resolve the singularity at a sharp interface between the alternative states, and to compute the self-induced flow velocity advecting the domain boundary. copyright 1997 The American Physical Society