Rayleigh-Marangoni convection in a critical fluid: A tale of two crossovers - art. no. 016311

We show that if we take a thin layer of fluid where surface tension effects are supposed to dominate and gradually bring the mean temperature of the l ayer closer and closer to the liquid vapor critical point, then first there is a crossover from Marangoni to Rayleigh-Benard convection and thence to a convection whose onset is determined by the Schwarzchild criterion.