IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/phsmap/v251y1998i1p27-39.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fluctuations in the structure of three-phase lines

Author

Listed:
  • Bukman, Dirk Jan
  • Widom, B

Abstract

We study the fluctuations in the density and composition of the contact line at which three phases meet. The equilibrium structure of the contact line is obtained by minimizing a model free-energy functional and then the fluctuations about that structure are analyzed via the spectrum of the free energy’s second functional derivative. Three zero eigenvalues correspond to three fluctuation modes in which the positions of the contact line and interfaces change with no change in their internal structure. These eigenvalues are at the bottom of a continuum in which most of the corresponding fluctuation modes involve perturbations in the structure of the interfaces, extending far from the three-phase contact line. We identify one mode that is localized at the contact line and discuss its physical significance.

Suggested Citation

  • Bukman, Dirk Jan & Widom, B, 1998. "Fluctuations in the structure of three-phase lines," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 251(1), pages 27-39.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:251:y:1998:i:1:p:27-39
    DOI: 10.1016/S0378-4371(97)00592-X
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037843719700592X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/S0378-4371(97)00592-X?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Widom, B., 1999. "What do we know that van der Waals did not know?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 263(1), pages 500-515.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:251:y:1998:i:1:p:27-39. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/physica-a-statistical-mechpplications/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.