Experimental realization of an incompressible Newtonian fluid in two dimensions

Abstract

The Brownian diffusion of micron-scale inclusions in freely suspended smectic-A liquid crystal films a few nanometers thick and several millimeters in diameter depends strongly on the air surrounding the film. Near atmospheric pressure, the three-dimensionally coupled film-gas system is well described by Hughes-Pailthorpe-White hydrodynamic theory but at lower pressure (p>70 torr), the diffusion coefficient increases substantially, tending in high vacuum toward the two-dimensional limit where it is determined by film size. In the absence of air, the films are found to be a nearly ideal physical realization of a two-dimensional, incompressible Newtonian fluid.