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The European Physical Journal B
ISSN: 1434-6028 (printed version)
ISSN: 1434-6036 (electronic version)
Abstract Volume 4 Issue 4 (1998) pp 459-467
Corrugation-induced first-order wetting: An effective Hamiltonian study
P.S. Swain (1) (a), A.O. Parry (2)
(1) Max-Planck Institut für Kolloid- und Grenzflächenforschung, Kantstrasse 55, 14513 Teltow-Seehof, Germany
(2) Department of Mathematics, Imperial College, 180 Queen's Gate, London SW7 2BZ, United Kingdom
Received: 13 February 1998 / Received in final form: 29 April 1998 / Accepted: 6 May 1998
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 three-dimensional Ising model to proceed in a discontinuous manner for small deviations of the wall from the plane.
PACS. 64.60.Fr Equilibrium properties near critical points, critical exponents - 68.10.-m Fluid surfaces and fluid-fluid interfaces - 68.45.Gd Wetting
(a) email: swain@mpikg-teltow.mpg.de
Article in PDF-Format (357 KB)
Online publication: August 27, 1998
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