Period tripling causes rotating spirals in agitated wet granular layers

Pattern formation of a thin layer of vertically agitated wet granular matter is investigated experimentally. Rotating spirals with three arms, which correspond to the kinks between regions with different colliding phases, are the dominating pattern. This preferred number of arms corresponds to period tripling of the agitated granular layer, unlike predominantly subharmonic Faraday crispations in dry granular matter. The chirality of the spatiotemporal pattern corresponds to the rotation direction of the spirals.