title: Emergent long-range couplings in arrays of fluid cells.
abstract: We present a system exhibiting extraordinarily long-range cooperative effects, on a length scale far exceeding the bulk correlation length. We give a theoretical explanation of these phenomena based on the mesoscopic picture of phase coexistence in finite systems, which is confirmed by Monte Carlo simulation studies. Our work demonstrates that such action at a distance can occur in classical systems involving simple or complex fluids, such as colloid-polymer mixtures or ferromagnets.
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3NP, United Kingdom and Center for Non-linear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico 87545, USA.
authors.forename: D B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Abraham
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme, Heisenbergstrasse 3, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany and IV. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Pfaffenwaldring 57, Universität Stuttgart, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany and Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kasprzaka 44/52, PL-01-224 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maciołek
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme, Heisenbergstrasse 3, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany and IV. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Pfaffenwaldring 57, Universität Stuttgart, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Vasilyev