MACROSCOPIC SHAPE OF CRITICAL DROPLETS IN 1ST-ORDER WETTING TRANSITIONS

In a first-order wetting transition the decay of a metastable non-wet state occurs by nucleation and growth of supercritical droplets on the wall of the system. Based on an effective interface model for the wetting fluid the shape of the critical droplet is calculated outside a microscopic region near the wall for a class of long-range interface potentials. The solution has a surprisingly simple form if the dimension of the system coincides with the boundary dimension between the so-called strong and weak fluctuation regimes.