Discontinuous behavior of liquids between parallel and tilted plates

Discontinuous behavior of liquids between parallel and tilted plates in the absence of gravity is discussed. A principal finding, derived mathematically from the classical Young-Laplace-Gauss formulation for capillary free surfaces, is that in a large range of configurations liquid bridges between parallel plates are unstable with respect to small, even infinitesimal, tilting of one of the plates. Under a computationally based hypothesis of uniqueness of spherical bridges in a wedge, it is shown that the same discontinuous behavior prevails for all but very particular circumstances. The various liquid configurations, which form the basis for an experiment on board the Space Station Mir, are characterized and illustrated. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.