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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
The coarsening observed orthogonal to the field lines in light scattering studies of a quiescent electrorhcological fluid during the “liquid-solid” phase transition can be qualitatively understood using the thermal mechanism of chain interaction proposed by Halsey and Toor. By analyzing fluctuations in the interaction between chains, we predict a power-law increase of the column width with time, with a time constant that decreases as a power of the electric field. Lubrication forces between the particles may control the time scale of these fluctuations. These predictions are in good accord with light scattering measurements.