English

Corrugation-Induced First-Order Wetting: An Effective Hamiltonian Study

Soft Condensed Matter 2009-10-31 v1 Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

We consider an effective Hamiltonian description of critical wetting transitions in systems with short-range forces at a corrugated (periodic) wall. We are able to recover the results obtained previously from a `microscopic' density-functional approach in which the system wets in a discontinuous manner when the amplitude of the corrugations reaches a critical size A*. Using the functional renormalization group, we find that A* becomes dependent on the wetting parameter \omega in such a way as to decrease the extent of the first-order regime. Nevertheless, we still expect wetting in the Ising model to proceed in a discontinuous manner for small deviations of the wall from the plane.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9805172,
  title  = {Corrugation-Induced First-Order Wetting: An Effective Hamiltonian Study},
  author = {P. S. Swain and A. O. Parry},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9805172},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

9 pages RevTex with 2 EPS figures. To appear in Eur. Phys. J. B

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