Methods used for studying and new phase diagram for capillary thinning and pinch-off. Methods used for studying and new phase diagram for capillary thinning and pinch-off. (A) Experimental setup used to capture images of the thinning neck of a drop forming from a nozzle. The images are then postprocessed to obtain the minimum neck radius as a function of the time remaining until breakup. (B) Snapshot of a drop forming from a tube that highlights the pinching zone in the vicinity of the pinch point. (C) Two series of images that focus on the pinching zones and depict the evolution in time of thinning filaments for drops of two fluids with different viscosities (i.e., different Oh). (D) Setup for simulating filament thinning and pinch-off: periodically perturbed jet (Left) and domain of axial length λ/2 used in simulations (Right). (E) Phase space showing trajectories taken by filaments of a slightly viscous (Oh<1) and a highly viscous (Oh>1) fluid. The large squares indicate the starting states at t=0. The arrows along each trajectory show the direction of evolution. José Rafael Castrejón-Pita et al. PNAS 2015;112:15:4582-4587 ©2015 by National Academy of Sciences