Considerations about universality in phase-ordering of binary liquids

Abstract

In this article we show that the phase-ordering scaling state for binary fluids is not necessarily unique and that local correlations in the initial conditions can be responsible for selecting the scaling state. We describe a new scaling state for symmetric volume fractions that consists of drops of the one component suspended in a matrix of the other. The underlying reason for the existence of the newly observed scaling state is that the main coarsening mechanism of binary fluids which is the deformation of interfaces by flow is not acting, and this leads to a new scaling law. An initial droplet state can be formed by a number of physical phenomena. In a unified description this can be undestood as local correlations in the initial conditions. Local correlations with length $ξ$ are believed to be irrelevant when the typical length scale L of the system is large ($L\gg ξ$). Our result shows that these initial correlations, contrary to current thinking, can be important even at late times.