Wetting Transition of the Two-Dimensional Solid-on-Solid Model with Quenched Disorder

Source abstract

We study the wetting transition for a two-dimensional Solid-On-Solid (SOS) interface above a hard wall in the presence of quenched disorder. The interface is represented by a nonnegative integer-valued height function $φ$, with Hamiltonian $\mathcal H^ω(φ)=β\sum_{x\sim y}|φ(x)-φ(y)|-\sum_x(h+αω_x-λ(α))\mathbf 1_{\{φ(x)=0\}}$, where $(ω_x)_{x\in\mathbb Z^2}$ is an i.i.d. centered field, $α\ge0$ is the disorder strength, and $λ(α)=\log\mathbb E[e^{αω_0}]$. This normalization is chosen so that the annealed model coincides with the corresponding homogeneous wetting model. As the wall attraction $h$ increases, the interface undergoes a transition from a delocalized phase, in which contacts with the wall have vanishing density, to a localized phase with a positive density of contacts. For sufficiently large $β$, the homogeneous wetting point and its sharp near-critical free-energy behavior are known. We prove that, for every fixed $α\ge0$, the quenched critical point coincides with the homogeneous wetting point, $h_c(β,α)=h_w(β)=-\log(1-e^{-4β})$. Moreover, writing $u=h-h_w(β)$, we show that the quenched excess free energy satisfies $\overline F_β(α,u)=\overline F_{\mathrm{homo}}(β,u)+o(u^3)$ as $u\downarrow0$, where $\overline F_{\mathrm{homo}}(β,u)$ denotes the leading homogeneous wetting asymptotic and satisfies $\overline F_{\mathrm{homo}}(β,u)\asymp u^3$. Thus, at the level of both the critical point and the leading near-critical free-energy asymptotics, the quenched model has the same behavior as the homogeneous SOS wetting model. This contrasts with the disordered SOS pinning model, in which quenched disorder leaves the critical point unchanged but modifies the leading critical behavior of the free energy.