Dynamics and delocalisation transition for an interface driven by a uniform shear flow

Abstract

We study the effect of a uniform shear flow on an interface separating the two broken-symmetry ordered phases of a two-dimensional system with nonconserved scalar order parameter. The interface, initially flat and perpendicular to the flow, is distorted by the shear flow. We show that there is a critical shear rate, \gamma_c, proportional to 1/L^2, (where L is the system width perpendicular to the flow) below which the interface can sustain the shear. In this regime the countermotion of the interface under its curvature balances the shear flow, and the stretched interface stabilizes into a time-independent shape whose form we determine analytically. For \gamma > \gamma_c, the interface acquires a non-zero velocity, whose profile is shown to reach a time-independent limit which we determine exactly. The analytical results are checked by numerical integration of the equations of motion.