TODAY's seminar

[CM ICTP - Trieste]

JOINT ICTP/SISSA STATISTICAL PHYSICS SEMINAR




Tuesday, 8 April    -    12:30 hrs.



Lecture Room 'D' - SISSA Main Building




S. DIETRICH  ( Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung  &  University 
of Stuttgart )



" Critical Casimir forces "



Abstract

Long-ranged correlations in a fluid close to its critical point lead to 
clearly identifiable effective forces on confining walls. The 
corresponding universal scaling functions are discussed for different 
boundary conditions and geometries. The theoretical predictions are 
compared with high precision experimental data for He4 and He3/He4 
wetting films near the superfluid phase transition as well with 
synchrotron scattering data from classical binary liquid mixtures. 
Applications for colloidal suspensions are discussed.