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Register a new userOn the weak scaling of the contact distance between two fluctuating interfaces with system size
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Clemens Moritz
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A pair of flat parallel surfaces, each freely diffusing along the direction of their separation, will eventually come into contact. If the shapes of these surfaces also fluctuate, then contact will occur when their centers of mass remain separated by a nonzero distance $ell$. Here we examine the statistics of $ell$ at the time of first contact for surfaces that evolve in time according to the Edwards-Wilkinson equation. We present a general approach to calculate its probability distribution and determine how its most likely value $ell^*$ depends on the surfaces lateral size $L$. We are motivated by an interest in the motion of interfaces between two phases at conditions of thermodynamic coexistence, and in particular the annihilation of domain wall pairs under periodic boundary conditions. Computer simulations of this scenario verify the predicted scaling behavior in two and three dimensions. In the latter case, slow growth where $ell^ast$ is an algebraic function of $log L$ implies that slab-shaped domains remain topologically intact until $ell$ becomes very small, contradicting expectations from equilibrium thermodynamics.
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Fluctuations of the interface between coexisting colloidal fluid phases have been measured with confocal microscopy. Due to a very low surface tension, the thermal motions of the interface are so slow, that a record can be made of the positions of the interface. The theory of the interfacial height fluctuations is developed. For a host of correlation functions, the experimental data are compared with the theoretical expressions. The agreement between theory and experiment is remarkably good.
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Based on the results published recently [J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 50, 065201 (2017)], the universal finite-size contributions to the free energy of the square lattice Ising model on the $Ltimes M$ rectangle, with open boundary conditions in both directions, are calculated exactly in the finite-size scaling limit $L,Mtoinfty$, $Tto T_mathrm{c}$, with fixed temperature scaling variable $xpropto(T/T_mathrm{c}-1)M$ and fixed aspect ratio $rhopropto L/M$. We derive exponentially fast converging series for the related Casimir potential and Casimir force scaling functions. At the critical point $T=T_mathrm{c}$ we confirm predictions from conformal field theory by Cardy & Peschel [Nucl. Phys. B 300, 377 (1988)] and by Kleban & Vassileva [J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 24, 3407 (1991)]. The presence of corners and the related corner free energy has dramatic impact on the Casimir scaling functions and leads to a logarithmic divergence of the Casimir potential scaling function at criticality.
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