English

Anomalous corrections to the Kelvin equation at complete wetting

Statistical Mechanics 2009-10-31 v2

Abstract

We consider an Ising model confined in an L×L \times \infty geometry with identical surface fields at the boundaries. According to the Kelvin equation the bulk coexistence field scales as 1/L for large L; thermodynamics and scaling arguments predict higher order corrections of the type 1/L21/L^2 and 1/L5/31/L^{5/3} at partial and complete wetting respectively. Our numerical results, obtained by density-matrix renormalization techniques for systems of widths up to L = 144, are in agreement with a 1/L21/L^2 correction in the partial wet regime. However at complete wetting we find a large range of surface fields and temperatures with a correction to scaling of type 1/L4/31/L^{4/3}. We show that this term is generated by a {\it thin} wetting layer whose free energy is dominated by the contacts with the wall. For LL sufficiently large we expect a crossover to a 1/L5/31/L^{5/3} correction as predicted by the theory for a {\it thick} wetting layer. This crossover is indeed found in a solid-on-solid model which provides a simplified description of the wetting layer and allows the study of much larger systems than those available in a density-matrix renormalization calculation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9803193,
  title  = {Anomalous corrections to the Kelvin equation at complete wetting},
  author = {Enrico Carlon and Andrzej Drzewinski and Jos Rogiers},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9803193},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

9 pages, RevTeX, 7 PostScript figures included. Some misprints corrected. Final version as published