Related papers: Spreading fronts: numerical simulations on discret…
The lectures examine several problems related to non-equilibrium fluctuations of interfaces and flux lines. The first two introduce the phenomenology of depinning, with particular emphasis on interfaces and contact lines. The role of the…
We introduce a model where an isotropic, dynamically-imposed stress induces fracture in a thin film. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we study how the integrated fragment distribution function depends on the rate of change and…
We study a lattice model for the spreading of fluid films, which are a few molecular layers thick, in narrow channels with inert lateral walls. We focus on systems connected to two particle reservoirs at different chemical potentials,…
We study analytically the development of gravitational instability in an expanding shell having finite thickness. We consider three models for the radial density profile of the shell: (i) an analytic uniform-density model, (ii) a…
We present a position Langevin equation for overdamped particle motion on rough two-dimensional surfaces. A Brownian Dynamics algorithm is suggested to evolve this equation numerically, allowing for the prediction of effective (projected)…
Imbibition phenomena have been widely used experimentally and theoretically to study the kinetic roughening of interfaces. We critically discuss the existing experiments and some associated theoretical approaches on the scaling properties…
Linear diffusions are used to model a large number of stochastic processes in physics, including small mechanical and electrical systems perturbed by thermal noise, as well as Brownian particles controlled by electrical and optical forces.…
The spontaneous spreading of non-volatile liquid droplets on solid substrates poses a classic problem in the context of wetting phenomena. It is well known that the spreading of a macroscopic droplet is in many cases accompanied by a thin…
We study the two-dimensional (2D) shear flow of amorphous solids within variants of an elastoplastic model, paying particular attention to spatial correlations and time fluctuations of, e.g., local stresses. The model is based on the local…
Frictional instabilities in fluid saturated granular materials underlie natural hazards, including submarine landslides and earthquake initiation. Experiments show distinct failure behaviors under subaerial and subaqueous conditions due to…
Understanding the physics of nonequilibrium systems remains as one of the major challenges of theoretical physics. This problem can be cracked in part by investigating the macroscopic fluctuations of the currents characterizing…
We present an introduction to modern theories of interfacial fluctuations and the associated interfacial parameters: surface tension and surface stiffness, as well as their interpretation within the capillary wave model. Transfer matrix…
The interface separating a liquid from its vapor phase is diffuse: the composition varies continuously from one phase to the other over a finite length. Recent experiments on dynamic jamming fronts in two dimensions [Waitukaitis et al.,…
The author investigates the onset of patterns in vertically oscillated layers of dissipative particles using numerical solutions of continuum equations to Navier-Stokes order. Above a critical accelerational amplitude of the cell, standing…
Upon heating, ultrastable glassy films transform into liquids via a propagating equilibration front, resembling the heterogeneous melting of crystals. A microscopic understanding of this robust phenomenology is however lacking because…
This paper exploits the theory of geometric gradient flows to introduce an alternative regularization of the thin-film equation. The solution properties of this regularization are investigated via a sequence of numerical simulations whose…
The onset of frictional motion is mediated by rupture-like slip fronts, which nucleate locally and propagate eventually along the entire interface causing global sliding. The static friction coefficient is a macroscopic measure of the…
In these lectures, a variety of non-equilibrium transport phenomena are introduced that all involve, in some way, elastic manifolds being driven through random media. A simple class of models is studied focussing on the behavior near to the…
Accretion occurs across a large range of scales and physical regimes. Despite this diversity in the physics, the observed properties show remarkably similarity. The theory of propagating fluctuations, in which broad-band variability within…
On microscopic and mesoscopic scales, plastic flow of crystals is characterized by large intrinsic fluctuations. Deformation by crystallographic slip occurs in a sequence of intermittent bursts ('slip avalanches') with power-law size…