In this short note, we review results on equilibrium shapes of minimizers to the sessile drop problem. More precisely, we study the Winterbottom problem and prove that the Winterbottom shape is indeed optimal. The arguments presented here are based on relaxation and the (anisotropic) isoperimetric inequality.

We study the low-temperature $(2+1)$D solid-on-solid model on with zero boundary conditions and nonnegative heights (a floor at height $0$). Caputo et al. (2016) established that this random surface typically admits either $\mathfrak h $ or $\mathfrak h+1$ many nested macroscopic level line loops $\{\mathcal L_i\}_{i\geq 0}$ for an explicit $\mathfrak h\asymp \log L$, and its top loop $\mathcal L_0$ has cube-root fluctuations: For example, if $\rho (x)$ is the vertical displacement of $\mathcal L_0$ from the bottom boundary point $(x,0)$, then $\max \rho (x) = L^{1/3+o(1)}$ over . It is believed that rescaling $\rho $ by $L^{1/3}$ and $I_0$ by $L^{2/3}$ would yield a limit law of a diffusion on $[-1,1]$. However, no nontrivial lower bound was known on $\rho (x)$ for a fixed $x\in I_0$ (e.g., $x=\frac L2$), let alone on $\min \rho (x)$ in $I_0$, to complement the bound on $\max \rho (x)$. Here, we show a lower bound of the predicted order $L^{1/3}$: For every $\epsilon>0$, there exists $\delta>0$ such that $\min _{x\in I_0} \rho (x) \geq \delta L^{1/3}$ with probability at least $1-\epsilon $. The proof relies on the Ornstein–Zernike machinery due to Campanino–Ioffe–Velenik and a result of Ioffe, Shlosman and Toninelli (2015) that rules out pinning in Ising polymers with modified interactions along the boundary. En route, we refine the latter result into a Brownian excursion limit law, which may be of independent interest. We further show that in a $ K L^{2/3}\times K L^{2/3}$ box with boundary conditions $\mathfrak h-1,\mathfrak h,\mathfrak h,\mathfrak h$ (i.e., $\mathfrak h-1$ on the bottom side and $\mathfrak h$ elsewhere), the limit of $\rho (x)$ as $K,L\to \infty $ is a Ferrari–Spohn diffusion.

We propose a general framework of computing interfacial structures between two modulated phases. Specifically we propose to use a computational box consisting of two half spaces, each occupied by a modulated phase with given position and orientation. The boundary conditions and basis functions are chosen to be commensurate with the bulk phases. We observe that the ordered nature of modulated structures stabilizes the interface, which enables us to obtain optimal interfacial structures by searching local minima of the free energy landscape. The framework is applied to the Landau-Brazovskii model to investigate interfaces between modulated phases with different relative positions and orientations. Several types of novel complex interfacial structures emerge from the calculations.

The problem of reflection and refraction of elastic waves due to an incident quasi-primary $(qP)$ wave at a plane interface between two dissimilar nematic elastomer half-spaces has been investigated. The expressions for the phase velocities corresponding to primary and secondary waves are given. It is observed that these phase velocities depend on the angle of propagation of the elastic waves. The reflection and refraction coefficients corresponding to the reflected and refracted waves, respectively, are derived by using appropriate boundary conditions. The energy transmission of the reflected and refracted waves is obtained, and the energy ratios and the reflection and refraction coefficients are computed numerically.

We report kinetic Monte-Karlo (KMC) simulation of self-assembled synthesis of nanocrystals by physical vapor deposition (PVD), which is one of most flexible, efficient, and clean techniques to fabricate nanopatterns. In particular, self-assembled arrays of nanocrystals can be synthesized by PVD. However size, shape and density of self-assembled nanocrystals are highly sensitive to the process conditions such as duration of deposition, temperature, substrate material, etc. To efficiently synthesize nanocrystalline arrays by PVD, the process control factors should be understood in detail. KMC simulations of film deposition are an important tool for understanding the mechanisms of film deposition. In this paper, we report a KMC modeling that explicitly represents PVD synthesis of self-assembled nanocrystals. We study how varying critical process parameters such as deposition rate, duration, temperature, and substrate type affect the lateral 2D morphologies of self-assembled metallic islands on substrates, and compare our results with experimentally observed surface morphologies generated by PVD. Our simulations align well with experimental results reported in the literature.