Influence of Capillary Condensation on the Near-Critical Solvation Force

We argue that in a fluid, or magnet, confined by adsorbing walls which favour liquid, or (+) phase, the solvation (Casimir) force in the vicinity of the critical point is strongly influenced by capillary condensation which occurs below the bulk critical temperature T_c. At T slightly below and above T_c, a small bulk field h<0, which favours gas, or (-) phase, leads to residual condensation and a solvation force which is much more attractive (at the same large wall separation) than that found exactly at the critical point. Our predictions are supported by results obtained from density-matrix renormalization-group calculations in a two-dimensional Ising strip subject to identical surface fields.Comment: 4 Pages, RevTeX, and 3 figures include

Critical Casimir effect and wetting by helium mixtures

We have measured the contact angle of the interface of phase-separated $^{3}$He-$^{4}$He mixtures against a sapphire window. We have found that this angle is finite and does not tend to zero when the temperature approaches $T_t$, the temperature of the tri-critical point. On the contrary, it increases with temperature. This behavior is a remarkable exception to what is generally observed near critical points, i.e. "critical point wetting''. We propose that it is a consequence of the "critical Casimir effect'' which leads to an effective attraction of the $^{3}$He-$^{4}$He interface by the sapphire near $T_{t}$.Comment: submitted july 13 (2002), published march 20 (2003

Local functional models of critical correlations in thin-films

Recent work on local functional theories of critical inhomogeneous fluids and Ising-like magnets has shown them to be a potentially exact, or near exact, description of universal finite-size effects associated with the excess free-energy and scaling of one-point functions in critical thin films. This approach is extended to predict the two-point correlation function G in critical thin-films with symmetric surface fields in arbitrary dimension d. In d=2 we show there is exact agreement with the predictions of conformal invariance for the complete spectrum of correlation lengths as well as the detailed position dependence of the asymptotic decay of G. In d=3 and d>=4 we present new numerical predictions for the universal finite-size correlation length and scaling functions determining the structure of G across the thin-film. Highly accurate analytical closed form expressions for these universal properties are derived in arbitrary dimension.Comment: 4 pages, 1 postscript figure. Submitted to Phys Rev Let

Perturbative calculation of the scaled factorial moments in second-order quark-hadron phase transition within the Ginzburg-Landau description

The scaled factorial moments $F_q$ are studied for a second-order quark-hadron phase transition within the Ginzburg-Landau description. The role played by the ground state of the system under low temperature is emphasized. After a local shift of the order parameter the fluctuations are around the ground state, and a perturbative calculation for $F_q$ can be carried out. Power scaling between $F_q$'s is shown, and a universal scaling exponent $\nu\simeq 1.75$ is given for the case with weak correlations and weak self-interactions.Comment: 12 pages in RevTeX, 12 eps figure

Casimir force induced by imperfect Bose gas

We present a study of the Casimir effect in an imperfect (mean-field) Bose gas contained between two infinite parallel plane walls. The derivation of the Casimir force follows from the calculation of the excess grand canonical free energy density under periodic, Dirichlet, and Neumann boundary conditions with the use of the steepest descent method. In the one-phase region the force decays exponentially fast when distance $D$ between the walls tends to infinity. When Bose-Einstein condensation point is approached the decay length in the exponential law diverges with critical exponent $\nu_{IMP}=1$, which differs from the perfect gas case where $\nu_{P}=1/2$. In the two-phase region the Casimir force is long-range, and decays following the power law $D^{-3}$, with the same amplitude as in the perfect gas

The Specific Heat of a Ferromagnetic Film.

We analyze the specific heat for the $O(N)$ vector model on a $d$-dimensional film geometry of thickness $L$ using ``environmentally friendly'' renormalization. We consider periodic, Dirichlet and antiperiodic boundary conditions, deriving expressions for the specific heat and an effective specific heat exponent, \alpha\ef. In the case of $d=3$, for $N=1$, by matching to the exact exponent of the two dimensional Ising model we capture the crossover for \xi_L\ra\infty between power law behaviour in the limit {L\over\xi_L}\ra\infty and logarithmic behaviour in the limit {L\over\xi_L}\ra0 for fixed $L$, where $\xi_L$ is the correlation length in the transverse dimensions.Comment: 21 pages of Plain TeX. Postscript figures available upon request from [email protected]

Critical free energy and Casimir forces in rectangular geometries

We study the critical behavior of the free energy and the thermodynamic Casimir force in a $L_\parallel^{d-1} \times L$ block geometry in $2<d<4$ dimensions with aspect ratio $\rho=L/L_\parallel$ above, at, and below $T_c$ on the basis of the O$(n)$ symmetric $\phi^4$ lattice model with periodic boundary conditions (b.c.). We consider a simple-cubic lattice with isotropic short-range interactions. Exact results are derived in the large - $n$ limit describing the geometric crossover from film ($\rho =0$) over cubic $\rho=1$ to cylindrical ($\rho = \infty$) geometries. For $n=1$, three perturbation approaches are presented that cover both the central finite-size regime near $T_c$ for $1/4 \lesssim \rho \lesssim 3$ and the region outside the central finite-size regime well above and below $T_c$ for arbitrary $\rho$. At bulk $T_c$ of isotropic systems with periodic b.c., we predict the critical Casimir force in the vertical $(L)$ direction to be negative (attractive) for a slab ($\rho 1$), and zero for a cube $(\rho=1)$. We also present extrapolations to the cylinder limit ($\rho=\infty$) and to the film limit ($\rho=0$) for $n=1$ and $d=3$. Our analytic results for finite-size scaling functions in the minimal renormalization scheme at fixed dimension $d=3$ agree well with Monte Carlo data for the three-dimensional Ising model by Hasenbusch for $\rho=1$ and by Vasilyev et al. for $\rho=1/6$ above, at, and below $T_c$.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figure

Casimir Forces between Spherical Particles in a Critical Fluid and Conformal Invariance

Mesoscopic particles immersed in a critical fluid experience long-range Casimir forces due to critical fluctuations. Using field theoretical methods, we investigate the Casimir interaction between two spherical particles and between a single particle and a planar boundary of the fluid. We exploit the conformal symmetry at the critical point to map both cases onto a highly symmetric geometry where the fluid is bounded by two concentric spheres with radii R_- and R_+. In this geometry the singular part of the free energy F only depends upon the ratio R_-/R_+, and the stress tensor, which we use to calculate F, has a particularly simple form. Different boundary conditions (surface universality classes) are considered, which either break or preserve the order-parameter symmetry. We also consider profiles of thermodynamic densities in the presence of two spheres. Explicit results are presented for an ordinary critical point to leading order in epsilon=4-d and, in the case of preserved symmetry, for the Gaussian model in arbitrary spatial dimension d. Fundamental short-distance properties, such as profile behavior near a surface or the behavior if a sphere has a `small' radius, are discussed and verified. The relevance for colloidal solutions is pointed out.Comment: 37 pages, 2 postscript figures, REVTEX 3.0, published in Phys. Rev. B 51, 13717 (1995

Crossover of Critical Casimir forces between different surface universality classes

In confined systems near a continuous phase transition the long-ranged fluctuations of the corresponding order parameter are subject to boundary conditions. These constraints result in so-called critical Casimir forces acting as effective forces on the confining surfaces. For systems belonging to the Ising bulk universality class corresponding to a scalar order parameter the critical Casimir force is studied for the film geometry in the crossover regime characterized by different surface fields at the two surfaces. The scaling function of the critical Casimir force is calculated within mean field theory. Within our approach, the scaling functions of the critical Casimir force and of the order parameter profile for finite surface fields can be mapped by rescaling, except for a narrow crossover regime, onto the corresponding scaling function of the so-called normal fixed point of strong surface fields. In the crossover regime, the critical Casimir force as function of temperature exhibits more than one extremum and for certain ranges of surface field strengths it changes sign twice upon varying temperature. Monte Carlo simulation data obtained for a three-dimensional Ising film show similar trends. The sign of the critical Casimir force can be inferred from the comparison of the order parameter profiles in the film and in the semi-infinite geometry