A Droplet within the Spherical Model

Anatoly E. Patrick

Published 2010-11-22Version 1

Various substances in the liquid state tend to form droplets. In this paper the shape of such droplets is investigated within the spherical model of a lattice gas. We show that in this case the droplet boundary is always diffusive, as opposed to sharp, and find the corresponding density profiles (droplet shapes). Translation-invariant versions of the spherical model do not fix the spatial location of the droplet, hence lead to mixed phases. To obtain pure macroscopic states (which describe localized droplets) we use generalized quasi-averaging. Conventional quasi-averaging deforms droplets and, hence, can not be used for this purpose. On the contrary, application of the generalized method of quasi-averages yields droplet shapes which do not depend on the magnitude of the applied external field.