Can nonlinear elasticity explain contact-line roughness at depinning?
We examine whether cubic nonlinearities, allowed by symmetry in the elastic energy of a contact line, may result in a different universality class at depinning. Standard linear elasticity predicts a roughness exponent zeta = 1/3 (one loop), zeta = 0.388 +/- 0.002 (numerics) while experiments give zeta approximately = 0.5. Within functional renormalization group methods we find that a nonlocal Kardar-Parisi-Zhang-type term is generated at depinning and grows under coarse graining. A fixed point with zeta approximately = 0.45 (one loop) is identified, showing that large enough cubic terms increase the roughness. This fixed point is unstable, revealing a rough strong-coupling phase. Experimental study of contact angles theta near pi/2, where cubic terms in the energy vanish, is suggested.
Le Doussal
Pierre
P
CNRS-Laboratoire de Physique Théorique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond 75005 Paris, France.
Wiese
Kay Jörg
KJ
Raphael
Elie
E
Golestanian
Ramin
R