Extended Data Fig. 4: Schematic of the Rayleigh-Plateau instability.
From: A hydrodynamic instability drives protein droplet formation on microtubules to nucleate branches
The viscosity of the condensed film is μ, γ is the surface tension of the interface, and p∞ is the far field pressure provided by the solvent. The microtubule has radius ri. Initially, the interface is flat at \(\xi \left(z,t=0\right)={r}_{{\rm{o}}}\), but this scenario is unstable against the capillary pressure γ/ro, so \(\xi \left(z,t\right)\) will evolve to a lower energy state. The unit normal n and unit tangent t track the geometry of the interface during its evolution.
