We present a thin front model for the propagation of chemical reaction fronts in liquids inside a Hele-Shaw cell or porous media. In this model we take into account density gradients due to thermal and compositional changes across a thin interface. The front separating reacted from unreacted fluids evolves following an eikonal relation between the normal speed and the curvature. We carry out a linear stability analysis of convectionless flat fronts confined in a two-dimensional rectangular domain. We find that all fronts are stable to perturbations of short wavelength, but they become unstable for some wavelengths depending on the values of compositional and thermal gradients. If the effects of these gradients oppose each other, we observe a range of wavelengths that make the flat front unstable. Numerical solutions of the nonlinear model show curved fronts of steady shape with convection propagating faster than flat fronts. Exothermic fronts increase the temperature of the fluid as they propagate through the domain. This increment in temperature decreases with increasing speed.

We have designed and experimentally put to test a protocol to synthesize and characterize pure, two-qubit states encoded in polarization and momentum (path) of light beams. Because these degrees of freedom are common to both classical and quantum light, it was possible to implement our protocol with classical light, thereby offering an advantageous and versatile testing ground. The experimental setup is robust and does not require state-dependent scheme modifications. We exhibited the capabilities of our protocol by generating three types of two-qubit states: Bell states, states with variable phases, and states with variable amplitudes.