A pure fluid at its critical point shows a dramatic slow-down in its dynamics, due to a divergence of the order-parameter susceptibility and the coefficient of heat transport. Under isothermal conditions, however, sound waves provide the only possible relaxation mechanism for order-parameter fluctuations. Here we study the critical dynamics of an isothermal, compressible nonideal fluid via scaling arguments and computer simulations of the corresponding fluctuating hydrodynamics equations. We show that, below a critical dimension of 4, the order-parameter dynamics of an isothermal fluid effectively reduces to "model A," characterized by overdamped sound waves and a divergent bulk viscosity. In contrast, the shear viscosity remains finite above two dimensions. Possible applications of the model are discussed.
ABSTRACT
PUBLICATION RECORD
- Publication year
2012
- Venue
Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
- Publication date
2012-08-23
- Fields of study
Mathematics, Physics, Medicine
- Identifiers
- External record
- Source metadata
Semantic Scholar, PubMed
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