The critical wetting saga: how to draw the correct conclusion

• Published in: Journal of physics. Condensed matter Vol. 20; no. 49; pp. 494234 - 494234 (5)
• Main Authors: Parry, A O, Rascón, C, Bernardino, N R, Romero-Enrique, J M
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 10.12.2008; Institute of Physics
• Subjects: Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Exact sciences and technology; Physics; Solid-fluid interfaces; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties); Wetting; Fluctuations; Monte Carlo methods; Wetting; Phase transformations; Effective Hamiltonian; Renormalization group method; Ising model; Critical phenomena; Critical exponents
• ISSN: 0953-8984; 1361-648X
• DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/20/49/494234

A long-standing problem in condensed matter physics concerns the nature of the critical wetting phase transition in the Ising model or, more generally, in 3D systems with short-ranged forces. This is of fundamental interest because 3D corresponds to the upper critical dimension of the transition and it is not clear a priori whether the behaviour of the system will be mean-field-like or fluctuation-dominated. Renormalization group studies of the standard coarse-grained effective interfacial Hamiltonian model famously predict strong non-universal critical exponents which depend on the value of the so-called wetting parameter omega. However, these predictions are at odds with extensive Monte Carlo simulations of wetting in the Ising model, due to Binder, Landau and coworkers, which appear to be more mean-field-like. Further amendments to the interfacial Hamiltonian, which included the presence of a position-dependent stiffness, worsened the problem by paradoxically predicting fluctuation-induced first-order wetting behaviour.