  The Leidenfrost effect is a phenomenon in which a liquid, poured onto a
surface significantly hotter than the liquid's boiling point, produces a layer
of vapor that prevents the liquid from rapid evaporation. Rather than making
physical contact, a drop of water levitates above the surface. The temperature
above which the phenomenon occurs is called the Leidenfrost temperature. The
reason for the existence of the Leidenfrost temperature, which is much higher
than the boiling point of the liquid, is not fully understood and predicted.
Here we prove that the Leidenfrost temperature corresponds to a bifurcation in
the solutions of equations describing evaporation of a nonequilibrium
liquid-vapor interface. For water, the theoretical values of obtained
Leidenfrost temperature, and that of the liquid bulk which is smaller than the
boiling point of liquid, fit the experimental results found in the literature.
