<< after single or multiple bridges form due to the presence of thermal capillary waves, the bridge growth commences in a thermal regime. Here, the bridges expand linearly in time much faster than the viscous-capillary speed due to collective molecular jumps near the bridge fronts. Transition to the classical hydrodynamic regime only occurs once the bridge radius exceeds a thermal length scale l_(T) ~ sqrt(Radius). >>
Sreehari Perumanath, Matthew K. Borg, et al. Droplet Coalescence is Initiated by Thermal Motion. Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 104501 Mar 13, 2019.
https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.104501
Supercomputer sheds light on how droplets merge. University of Edinburgh. Mar 20, 2019.
https://m.phys.org/news/2019-03-supercomputer-droplets-merge.html