Aging and Crossovers in Phase-Separating Fluid Mixtures

TL;DR

This study uses advanced molecular dynamics simulations to investigate how hydrodynamic effects influence aging during phase separation in fluid mixtures, revealing a crossover from diffusive to viscous hydrodynamic regimes and corresponding changes in autocorrelation behavior.

Contribution

It provides detailed simulation evidence of crossover phenomena in phase-separating fluids, connecting theoretical predictions with observed aging dynamics.

Findings

Crossover from diffusive to viscous hydrodynamic domain growth

Autocorrelation function shifts from power-law to exponential decay

Analytical justification for faster advective transport effects

Abstract

We use state-of-the-art molecular dynamics simulations to study hydrodynamic effects on aging during kinetics of phase separation in a fluid mixture. The domain growth law shows a crossover from a diffusive regime to a viscous hydrodynamic regime. There is a corresponding crossover in the autocorrelation function from a power-law behavior to an exponential decay. While the former is consistent with theories for diffusive domain growth, the latter results as a consequence of faster advective transport in fluids for which an analytical justification has been provided.