English

Tricritical wedge filling transitions with short-ranged forces

Statistical Mechanics 2009-11-11 v1 Soft Condensed Matter

Abstract

We show that the 3D wedge filling transition in the presence of short-ranged interactions can be first-order or second order depending on the strength of the line tension associated with to the wedge bottom. This fact implies the existence of a tricritical point characterized by a short-distance expansion which differs from the usual continuous filling transition. Our analysis is based on an effective one-dimensional model for the 3D wedge filling which arises from the identification of the breather modes as the only relevant interfacial fluctuations. From such analysis we find a correspondence between continuous 3D filling at bulk coexistence and 2D wetting transitions with random-bond disorder.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0510623,
  title  = {Tricritical wedge filling transitions with short-ranged forces},
  author = {J. M. Romero-Enrique and A. O. Parry},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0510623},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

7 pages, 3 figures, 6th Liquid Matter Conference Proceedings (to be published in J. Phys.: Condens. Matter)