Crossover scaling of apparent first-order wetting in two dimensional systems with short-ranged forces

TL;DR

This paper investigates how apparent first-order wetting transitions in two-dimensional systems with short-range forces can be understood through crossover scaling, revealing the non-universality of critical exponents and the role of interfacial tunneling.

Contribution

It provides a detailed interfacial Hamiltonian analysis connecting crossover scaling to apparent first-order wetting phenomena in 2D systems.

Findings

Derived explicit crossover scaling functions in different fluctuation regimes.

Showed the non-universality of the effective surface susceptibility exponent.

Explained the rounding of pseudo pre-wetting transitions above the wetting temperature.

Abstract

Recent analyses of wetting in the semi-infinite two dimensional Ising model, extended to include both a surface coupling enhancement and a surface field, have shown that the wetting transition may be effectively first-order and that surprisingly the surface susceptibility develops a divergence described by an anomalous exponent with value $\gamma_{11}^{\rm eff}=\frac{3}{2}$. We reproduce these results using an interfacial Hamiltonian model making connection with previous studies of two dimensional wetting and show that they follow from the simple crossover scaling of the singular contribution to the surface free-energy which describes the change from apparent first-order to continuous (critical) wetting due to interfacial tunnelling. The crossover scaling functions are calculated explicitly within both the strong-fluctuation and intermediate-fluctuation regimes and determine uniquely and more generally the value of $\gamma_{11}^{\rm eff}$ which is non-universal for the latter regime. The location and the rounding of a line of pseudo pre-wetting transitions occurring above the wetting temperature and off bulk coexistence, together with the crossover scaling of the parallel correlation length, is also discussed in detail.