Eur. Phys. J. E 5, 465-470 (2001)
Renormalized tricritical behaviour for wetting transitions
C.J. Boulter and F. ClarysseDepartment of Mathematics, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK c.j.boulter@ma.hw.ac.uk
(Received 4 January 2001 and Received in final form 11 May 2001)
Abstract
In this paper we study tricritical wetting behaviour in three dimensions. In
particular we concentrate on systems with short-ranged forces and apply
linear functional renormalization group techniques to elucidate the effect of
fluctuations upon tricriticality. In comparison with studies of critical wetting
we identify an additional fluctuation regime which is relevant for values of the
capillary parameter between 2/9 and 1/2.
We demonstrate that this regime essentially provides a crossover from mean-field like behaviour, in which
tricritical exponents are always distinct from their critical counterparts, from intermediate- and
strong-fluctuation behaviour where the critical exponents for tricritical and critical wetting are found
to always coincide. We conclude by discussing briefly the possible relevance of these results for
experimental studies of wetting.
68.08.Bc - Wetting.
64.60.Kw - Multicritical points.
68.35.Rh - Phase transitions and critical phenomena.
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2001