  We study experimentally and numerically the thinning of a Newtonian
leaky-dielectric filament subject to an axial electric field. We consider
moderately viscous liquids with high permittivity. The experiments show that
satellite droplets are produced from the breakup of the filaments with high
electrical permittivity due to the action of the electric field. Two
electrified filaments with the same minimum radius thin at the same speed
regardless of when the voltage was applied. The numerical simulations show that
the polarization stress is responsible for the pinching delay observed in the
experiments. Asymptotically close to the pinching point, the filament pinching
is dominated by the diverging hydrodynamic forces. The polarization stress
becomes subdominant even if this stress also diverges at this finite-time
singularity.
