For and , planar coexistence occurs at with . Put . A common small shift gives equal chemical potentials to first order,
The thermodynamic pressure is . Its difference between the positive interior and negative exterior is therefore
For a sphere the Young–Laplace equation gives . Consequently the Gibbs--Thomson relation is
At leading order in the small axial slope, the outer flow is locally the two-dimensional radial incompressible flow
because and the kinematic boundary condition is . This field is harmonic as a vector field away from the axis, so the exterior pressure is spatially constant and may be set to zero. Its radial normal stress at the interface is
Neglecting the tangential corrections, axial curvature, and the small internal viscous normal stress, the Young–Laplace equation with cylindrical curvature gives
Thus