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 wet ting fluid the shape of the critical droplet is calculated outside a m icroscopic region near the wall for a class of long-range interface po tentials. The solution has a surprisingly simple form if the dimension of the system coincides with the boundary dimension between the so-ca lled strong and weak fluctuation regimes.