First order wetting of rough substrates and quantum unbinding

TL;DR

This paper investigates how surface roughness and fluctuation regimes influence wetting transitions, revealing conditions under which wetting becomes first-order and connecting these phenomena to quantum bound state properties.

Contribution

It introduces a unified analysis of wetting transitions on rough substrates using renormalization group methods and quantum bound state theory, highlighting new thresholds and regimes.

Findings

Wetting becomes first-order when roughness exponent exceeds bulk fluctuation anisotropy.

Different force ranges and regimes alter wetting transition thresholds.

Quantum bound state properties underpin the stability of wetting behaviors.

Abstract

Replica and functional renormalization group methods show that, with short range substrate forces or in strong fluctuation regimes, wetting of a self-affine rough wall in 2D turns first-order as soon as the wall roughness exponent exceeds the anisotropy index of bulk interface fluctuations. Different thresholds apply with long range forces in mean field regimes. For bond-disordered bulk, fixed point stability suggests similar results, which ultimately rely on basic properties of quantum bound states with asymptotically power-law repulsive potentials.