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A gradient-quartic Brazovskii model stabilizes a negative quadratic gradient coefficient with $\gamma ({\nabla }^2\varphi {)}^2/2$ and uses the quartic interaction $B{\varphi }^2|\nabla \varphi {|}^2$. For $\gamma ,B>0$ and a zero-average compositional order parameter, its nonzero-wavevector instability is a candidate for smectic phase ordering. The Gaussian variational kernel for a gradient quartic interaction shifts both the quadratic coefficients.

Adding $d\varphi$ to a free-energy density adds a constant at fixed total compositional order parameter. In the common-tangent construction for phase coexistence, it shifts the tangent slope by $d$ while preserving its points of contact. Thus coexistence compositions are unchanged, whereas their chemical potential shifts. This does not assert unchanged equilibrium composition at a fixed externally imposed chemical potential.

The field $\varphi$ is a compositional order parameter in a binary fluid mixture. Its spatial integral is conserved in a closed sample, so advection and diffusion enter a continuity equation; the material derivative follows the incompressible fluid. The diffusive current $\mathbf{J}=-M\nabla \mu$, with positive order-parameter mobility $M$, moves material down the chemical potential gradient. The chemical potential of a composition field is the functional derivative of the symmetric quartic Landau free energyso $\mu =a\varphi +b{\varphi }^3-\kappa {\nabla }^2\varphi$. Positive $b,\kappa$ stabilize large amplitudes and penalize sharp interfaces; $a<0$ permits phase separation.

The momentum equation is the Navier-Stokes equation with dynamic viscosity $\eta$, constant mass density $\rho$, and the Korteweg force $-\varphi \nabla \mu$ arising from composition stresses. The pressure enforces incompressible flow, $\nabla \cdot \mathbf{v}=0$, and can absorb pure gradient contributions to that thermodynamic force. For example, $-\varphi \nabla \mu =\mu \nabla \varphi -\nabla (\varphi \mu )$ gives an equivalent force after redefining the pressure. These equations constitute deterministic Model H dynamics.

Their dissipative signs can be checked by the energy dissipation identity for Model H. Under periodic or no-flux, no-work boundary conditions, composition advection and capillary work cancel between $F$ and the kinetic energy, givingThus diffusion and viscosity dissipate energy, while the reversible advective coupling transfers it between composition and motion. Thermal noises are omitted at this deterministic hydrodynamic level.

Take $b>0$ for a stable quartic Landau free energy. The cubic-term removal in a conserved quartic Landau free energy uses $\varphi =\psi -c/(3b)$ and gives, apart from a constant,For a closed binary fluid mixture, the compositional order parameter has fixed integral. Adding $d\int \varphi$ therefore adds the same constant to every allowed state. Equivalently, in the common-tangent construction for phase coexistence, a linear term changes the tangent slope, hence the chemical potential, by $d$, but leaves the coexistence compositions unchanged. This is why linear composition bias leaves coexistence compositions unchanged; it would not mean an unchanged composition at a fixed externally imposed chemical potential.

In the shifted variable, the binodal compositions are ${\psi }_{\pm }=\pm \sqrt{-a^{\prime }/b}$ for $a^{\prime }<0$. They merge atThe continuous phase transition therefore has the same scalar quartic Landau theory as the symmetric binary fluid mixture, with a shifted critical composition and control parameter. In the mean-field approximation, the composition difference vanishes with order-parameter critical exponent $1/2$. This argument presumes the critical composition lies in the physically accessible composition range; conservation affects the dynamics, not this static phase coexistence construction.

For a binary fluid mixture, the scalar compositional order parameter $\varphi (\mathbf{r})$ may be taken as the local concentration difference between its two molecular species. Its spatial integral is fixed by their separately fixed total amounts:Locally, $\varphi$ can change only through transport and therefore obeys a continuity equation. By contrast, $\mathbf{p}$ is the local polar order parameter measuring the mean tail-to-head orientation of the surfactant molecules. Individual molecules can rotate in place, so the integral of $\mathbf{p}$ need not be conserved.

Use the Fourier transform conventionThe zero mode vanishes because the compositional order parameter has zero spatial average. Parseval identity and the Fourier transform of a derivative turn the quadratic part of the dimensionless free energy intoHere ${\sum }_{\mathbf{q}}^{+}$ is the positive-wavevector sum for a real field. Each independent complex amplitude has density proportional to $e^{-G(q)|{\varphi }_{\mathbf{q}}{|}^2}$, so its elementary Gaussian integral gives the static structure factorwhenever $G(q)>0$.

The stationary points of the Brazovskii model kernel obeyBecause $\kappa <0<\gamma$, the nonzero minimum is the nonzero-wavevector soft-mode sphereAt this wavevector,The first Gaussian field theory divergence therefore occurs at

For a binary fluid mixture, the compositional order parameter $\varphi (\mathbf{r})$ may be taken as the local concentration difference between the two species. In a closed systemis fixed by the total amount of each species. This is the sense in which $\varphi$ is conserved; locally it changes through a current and obeys a continuity equation.

For a symmetric mixture, the Landau-Ginzburg theory free energy isA term $h{\int }_V\varphi ,d\mathbf{r}$ is constant on the allowed configurations and therefore changes neither equilibrium probabilities nor the dynamics. Equivalently, it merely shifts the chemical potential by a spatial constant, whose gradient vanishes.