Recoil of a liquid filament: escape of the pinch-off by creation of a vortex ring

A liquid filament recoils under the effect of its surface tension. It may recoil to one sphere: the geometrical shape with lowest surface, or otherwise segment to several pieces which individually will recoil to spheres. This experiment is classical and its exploration is fundamental to understanding how liquid volumes relax. In this talk, we uncover a mechanism involving the creation of a vortex ring which plays a central role in escaping the segmentation.