Some recent (and surprising) results on interface and contact line depinning in random media

2002/04/09 by J. Vannimenus, Jean Vannimenus
Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Combinatorics #Condensed matter physics #Contact angle #Economics #Geometry #Interface (matter) #Line (geometry) #Loop (graph theory) #Material Dynamics and Properties #Materials science #Mathematics #Monte Carlo method #Order (exchange) #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Range (aeronautics) #Renormalization #Renormalization group #Statistical physics #Statistics #Stochastic processes and statistical mechanics #Theoretical and Computational Physics #Thermodynamics #Variety (cybernetics) #cond-mat

paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/s0378-4371(02)01180-9

10 pages, 2 figures. Talk given at "Horizons in complex Systems" (Messina, December 2001), to be published in Physica A

arxiv created 2002/04/09 · openalex publication_date 2002/11/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

I give a brief review of results obtained recently at Ecole Normale on the depinning transition of interfaces and contact lines using a variety of approaches: non-local Monte Carlo algorithms, dynamical renormalization group calculations to 2-loop order, and exact solution of an infinite-range model.

Citations

• Disjoining potential and spreading of thin liquid layers in the diffuse-interface model coupled to hydrodynamics
• Monte Carlo dynamics of driven elastic strings in disordered media