Capillary waves of fluid interfaces near a critical point

J.V. Sengers, J.M.J. Van Leeuwen and J.W. Schmidt

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 1991, vol. 172, issue 1, 20-39

Abstract: A fluid interface near a critical point is commonly pictured as an intrinsic interface broadened by thermally excited capillary waves. A comparison of the capillary-wave theory with experiments is hampered by the presence of two short-wavelength cutoff parameters in the theory. We review a procedure introduced earlier for fixing these cutoff parameters, so that a definite comparison can be made with experimental reflectivity data reported by Huang and Webb for a binary liquid (methanol + cyclohexane) near the consolute temperature, and by Wu and Webb for a one-component fluid (sulfurhexafluoride) near the critical temperature. We show that the temperature dependence of the reflectivity data for the binary liquid is consistent with a nonuniversal temperature dependence predicted by capillary-wave theory. The reflectivity data of the vapor-liquid interface of SF6 do not appear to be consistent with the binary-liquid reflectivities and do not show the predicted temperature dependence.

Date: 1991
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:172:y:1991:i:1:p:20-39

DOI: 10.1016/0378-4371(91)90309-Z

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