Two-Scale Competition in Phase Separation with Shear

The behavior of a phase separating binary mixture in uniform shear flow is investigated by numerical simulations and in a renormalization group approach. Results show the simultaneous existence of domains of two characteristic scales. Stretching and cooperative ruptures of the network produce a rich interplay where the recurrent prevalence of thick and thin domains determines log-time periodic oscillations. A power-law growth R(t)~t^α of the average domain size, with α0ex0ex=0ex0ex4/3 and α0ex0ex=0ex0ex1/3 in the flow and shear direction, respectively, is shown to be obeyed.