Thin-film flow influenced by thermal noise (Q2494495)

The authors propose a stochastic partial differential equation for the description of the dynamics of thin liquid films. This stochastic thin-film equation includes a multiplicative noise term, which should take into account the effect of thermal fluctuations. This thermal noise is uncorrelated in both space and time. The equation is obtained as long-wave-approximation of the stochastic Navier-Stokes equation and was derived independently also in a recent study of droplet spreading [\textit{B. Davidovitch, E. Moro}, and \textit{H. A. Stone}, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 244--505 (2005)]. The authors also provide numerical studies on the effect of thermal noise on the dewetting dynamics. In particular they are able to show that the noise term leads to a reduction of the time necessary for the transition from a flat film to a locally ruptured one. This qualitative behaviour is in agreement with recent experimental observations.