Break-up of an air bubble in water: Memory of azimuthal asymmetry

Recent experiments showed that the break-up of an air bubble in water retains a detailed memory of asymmetries present in the initial shape [1]. To gain insight into the physical mechanism for this memory, we analyze how non-axisymmetric perturbations change the collapse dynamics of a cylindrical void in water. We also consider the effects of surface tension and viscous dissipation, both of which act to smooth out shape perturbations. \newline \newline [1] N. Keim et al, cond-mat/0605669