Fokker-Planck Equations for Nucleation Processes Revisited
Abstract
We present a new approach to analyze homogeneous nucleation based on non-equilibrium thermodynamics. The starting point is the formulation of a Gibbs equation for the variations of the entropy of the system, whose state is characterized by an internal coordinate or degree of freedom. By applying the method of non-equilibrium thermodynamics we then obtain the entropy production corresponding to a diffusion process in the internal space. The linear laws together with the continuity equation lead to a kinetic equation of the Fokker-Planck type. By choosing properly the degree of freedom we are able to obtain a new kinetic equation for a global crystallization order parameter (used in recent simulations), and also we recover some of the existing equations. The consistency of the scheme we propose is proved in the quasi-stationary case. Finally, we also outline the way in which our formalism could be extended to more general situations.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9802299,
title = {Fokker-Planck Equations for Nucleation Processes Revisited},
author = {D. Reguera Lopez and J. M. Rubi and A. Perez-Madrid},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9802299},
year = {2007}
}