Physics – Condensed Matter – Soft Condensed Matter
Scientific paper
2007-02-27
Physics
Condensed Matter
Soft Condensed Matter
Revised version with two added figures, accepted for publication in New Journal of Physics
Scientific paper
10.1088/1367-2630/9/6/167
We study filling phenomena in 3D wedge geometries paying particular attention to the role played by a line tension associated with the wedge bottom. Our study is based on transfer matrix analysis of an effective one dimensional model of 3D filling which accounts for the breather-mode excitations of the interfacial height. The transition may be first-order or continuous (critical) depending on the strength of the line tension associated with the wedge bottom. Exact results are reported for the interfacial properties near filling with both short-ranged (contact) forces and also van der Waals interactions. For sufficiently short-ranged forces we show the lines of critical and first-order filling meet at a tricritical point. This contrasts with the case of dispersion forces for which the lines meet at a critical end-point. Our transfer matrix analysis is compared with generalized random-walk arguments based on a necklace model and is shown to be a thermodynamically consistent description of fluctuation effects at filling. Connections with the predictions of conformal invariance for droplet shapes in wedges is also made.
Parry A. O.
Romero-Enrique Jose Manuel
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