An accurate experimental and theoretical study has been performed about aphenomenon, not previously reported in the literature, occurring in highlyviscous liquids: the formation of a definite pipe structure induced by thepassage of a heavy body, this structure lasting for quite a long time. A veryrich phenomenology (including mechanical, optical and structural effects)associated with the formation of the pipe has been observed in differentliquids. Actually, the peculiar dynamical evolution of that structure does notappear as a trivial manifestation of standard relaxation or spurious effects.In particular we have revealed different time scales during the evolution ofthe pipe and a non-monotonous decrease of the persistence time with decreasingviscosity (with the appearance of at least two different maxima). We putforward a microscopic model, consistent with the experimental data, where thepipe behaves as a "dielectric shell" whose time evolution is described througha simple thermodynamical approach, predicting several properties effectivelyobserved.
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