Thinning processes in soap films

Soap films fascinate children and scientists alike. Historically, their study has helped in the emergence of many concepts that we are familiar with today. However, the physics of these systems is far from being entirely understood. For example, though the fast thinning and drainage of soap films (which ultimately leads to their bursting) is a manifest phenomenon, the physical processes responsible for them remain largely mysterious. It has been observed that this fast thinning is associated with an instability known as "marginal regeneration", and whose classical interpretation invokes the emergence of thin regions of film near the borders of the frame. In this seminar, we will present a mechanism for the appearance of such thin regions, and try to understand how these can lead subsequently to the marginal regeneration instability.