Universality versus nonuniversality of critical transport properties in liquid mixtures

Abstract

The critical behavior near consolute points and plait points in mixtures and along lines connecting such points in the phase diagram belongs to the universality class of gas-liquid transitions in pure liquids. We give a survey of the results for the temperature dependence of transport coefficients, thermal conductivity, mass diffusion, and thermal-diffusion ratio, in mixtures within a non-asymptotic renormalization-group theory of critical dynamics. The observable critical behavior in some cases is nonuniversal and may be strongly concentration dependent. This is explained by different crossover temperatures in the singular Onsager coefficient of the order parameter and in the hydrodynamic transport coefficients. At the plait point the value of (ie1363-01) determines the crossover to the asymptotic behavior in the transport coefficients, and its smallness explains the situation in3He-4He mixtures. We also consider ionic solutions, where long-range forces may be present. The dynamical universality class in this case is different from that of mixtures with short-range interaction. As well as the “classical” static behavior for sufficient long-range interaction potentials, the dynamical critical behavior depends on the exponent of the power law for the spatial decrease in this interaction. This offers an additional possibility to determine this exponent by measuring the temperature dependence of the hydrodynamic transport coefficients.