title: Capillarity driven instability of a soft solid.
abstract: We report the observation of a Plateau instability in a thin filament of solid gel with a very small elastic modulus. A longitudinal undulation of the surface of the cylinder reduces its area thereby triggering capillary instability, but is counterbalanced by elastic forces following the deformation. This competition leads to a nontrivial instability threshold for a solid cylinder. The ratio of surface tension to elastic modulus defines a characteristic length scale. The onset of linear instability is when the radius of the cylinder is one-sixth of this length scale, in agreement with theory presented here.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire des Colloïdes, Verres et Nanomatériaux, UMR 5587, Université Montpellier 2 and CNRS, Place Eugène Bataillon, F-34095 Montpellier Cedex, France. smora@univ-montp2.fr
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mora
authors.forename: Ty
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Phou
authors.forename: Jean-Marc
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Fromental
authors.forename: Len M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Pismen
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pomeau