Condensed Matter Theory

Abstract:

Monolayer cluster growth in far-from-equilibrium systems is investigated by applying simulation and analytic techniques to minimal hard core particle (exclusion) models. The first model (I), for postdeposition coarsening dynamics, contains mechanisms of diffusion, attachment, and slow activated detachment (at rate epsilon<<1 ) of particles on a line. Simulation shows three successive regimes of cluster growth: fast attachment of isolated particles; detachment allowing further ( epsilont )(1/3) coarsening of average cluster size; and t(-1/2) approach to a saturation size varying as epsilon(-1/2) . Model II generalizes the first one in having an additional mechanism of particle deposition into cluster gaps, suppressed for the smallest gaps. This model exhibits early rapid filling, leading to slowing deposition due to the increasing scarcity of deposition sites, and then continued power law [ ( epsilont )(1/2) ] cluster size coarsening through the redistribution allowed by slow detachment. The basic ( epsilont )(1/3) domain growth laws and epsilon(-1/2) saturation in model I are explained by a simple scaling picture involving the time for a particle to detach and diffuse to the next cluster. A second, fuller approach is presented that employs a mapping of cluster configurations to a column picture and an approximate factorization of the cluster configuration probability within the resulting master equation. This allows, through the steady state solution of the corresponding equation for a cluster probability generating function, quantitative results for the saturation of model I in excellent agreement with the simulation results. For model II, it provides a one-variable scaling function solution for the coarsening probability distribution, and in particular quantitative agreement with the cluster length scaling and its amplitude.

Abstract:

We describe a lattice Boltzmann algorithm to simulate liquid-crystal hydrodynamics in three dimensions. The equations of motion are written in terms of a tensor order parameter. This allows both the isotropic and the nematic phases to be considered. Backflow effects and the hydrodynamics of topological defects are naturally included in the simulations, as are viscoelastic effects such as shear-thinning and shear-banding. We describe the implementation of velocity boundary conditions and show that the algorithm can be used to describe optical bounce in twisted nematic devices and secondary flow in sheared nematics with an imposed twist.

Abstract:

The dynamics of the deformations of a moving contact line on a disordered substrate are formulated, taking a proper account of the various interfacial forces as well as the dissipation mechanisms. Prompted by the results from dynamical renormalization group calculations, it is suggested that the coating transition in contact lines receding at relatively high velocities can be understood as a roughening transition in the contact line. A phase diagram is proposed for the system in which the phase boundaries corresponding to the coating transition and the pinning transition meet at a junction point, and suggest that for sufficiently strong disorder a receding contact line will leave a Landau-Levich film immediately after de-pinning.

Abstract:

We use a three-dimensional lattice Boltzmann model to investigate the spreading of mesoscopic droplets on homogeneous and heterogeneous surfaces. On a homogeneous substrate the base radius of the droplet grows with time as t(0.28) for a range of viscosities and surface tensions. The time evolutions collapse onto a single curve as a function of a dimensionless time. On a surface comprising of alternate lyophobic and lyophilic stripes the wetting velocity is anisotropic and the equilibrium shape of the droplet reflects the wetting properties of the underlying substrate. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.