title: Fluid adsorption at the base of a cylinder.
abstract: We consider the adsorption of fluid at a cylinder protruding from a flat substrate. For small contact angles θ, a liquid drop condenses at the base, the size of which is determined by macroscopic arguments. The adsorption exhibits scaling behavior related to a number of phase transitions and, for systems with short-ranged forces, shows a remarkable property: for small θ, the height and width of the drop are near identical to expressions for the thickness and parallel correlation length for microscopic wetting films. The only difference is that the bulk correlation length is replaced by the cylinder radius. This geometrical amplification of the microscopic lengths occurs for second-order, first-order, and complete wetting transitions, and is specific to three dimensions. Similar phenomena occurs for long-ranged forces, and shows crossover scaling behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Andrew O
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Parry
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rascón