Amplification of Fluctuations in Unstable Systems with Disorder

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quenched disorder amplifies initial fluctuations in unstable systems, with analytical and numerical evidence from phase separation phenomena, highlighting implications for experimental observations.

Contribution

It provides an analytical and numerical study demonstrating that quenched disorder enhances fluctuation growth in unstable systems, a novel insight into disorder effects.

Findings

Disorder amplifies initial fluctuation growth in unstable systems.

Numerical simulations confirm analytical predictions.

Implications for experimental observation of phase separation phenomena.

Abstract

We study the early-stage kinetics of thermodynamically unstable systems with quenched disorder. We show analytically that the growth of initial fluctuations is amplified by the presence of disorder. This is confirmed by numerical simulations of morphological phase separation (MPS) in thin liquid films and spinodal decomposition (SD) in binary mixtures. We also discuss the experimental implications of our results.