title: Capillary attraction induced collapse of colloidal monolayers at fluid interfaces.
abstract: We investigate the evolution of a system of colloidal particles, trapped at a fluid interface and interacting via capillary attraction, as a function of the range of capillary interactions and temperature. We address the collapse of an initially homogeneous particle distribution and of a radially symmetric (disk-shaped) distribution of finite size, both theoretically by using a perturbative approach inspired by cosmological models and numerically by means of Brownian dynamics (BD) and dynamical density functional theory (DDFT). The results are summarized in a "dynamical phase diagram", describing a smooth crossover from a collective (gravitational-like) collapse to local (spinodal-like) clustering. In this crossover region, the evolution exhibits a peculiar shock wave behavior at the outer rim of the contracting, disk-shaped distribution.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Angewandte Physik, Auf der Morgenstelle 10, Eberhard Karls Universität, 72076 Tübingen, Germany. johannes.bleibel@uni-tuebingen.de.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bleibel
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Domínguez
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oettel
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dietrich