Measures of fluctuations for a liquid near critical drying

We investigate density fluctuations in a liquid close to a solvophobic substrate at which a surface critical drying transition occurs. Using classical density functional theory, we determine three measures of the spatial extent and strength of the fluctuations, i.e., the local compressibility χμ(z), the local thermal susceptibility χT(z), and the reduced density χ∗(z); z is the distance from the substrate. While the first measure is frequently used, the second and third were introduced very recently by Eckert et al., [T. Eckert, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 268004 (2020)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.125.268004]. For state points in the critical drying regime, all three measures, each scaled by its bulk value, exhibit very similar forms and the ratio of χT(z) to χμ(z), for fixed z in the vapor-liquid transition region, is constant. Using a scaling treatment of surface thermodynamics, we show that such behavior is to be expected on general grounds.