Related papers: Modeling of Nucleation Processes
Over recent years, molecular simulations have provided invaluable insights into the microscopic processes governing the initial stages of crystal nucleation and growth. A key aspect that has been observed in many different systems is the…
We carry out molecular dynamics (MD) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations to characterize nucleation in liquid clusters of 600 Lennard-Jones particles over a broad range of temperatures. We use the formalism of mean first-passage times to…
The freezing/melting transition is at the heart of many natural and industrial processes. In the classical picture, the transition proceeds via the nucleation of the new phase, which has to overcome a barrier associated to the free energy…
Using large-scale numerical simulations we studied the kinetics of the 2d q-Potts model for q > 4 after a shallow subcritical quench from a high-temperature homogeneous configuration. This protocol drives the system across a first-order…
We assume that, in equilibrium, nuclear matter at reduced density and moderate finite temperature, breaks up into many fragments. A strong support to this assumption is provided by date accumulated from intermediate energy heavy ion…
A recent description of diffusion-limited nucleation based on fluctuating hydrodynamics that extends classical nucleation theory predicts a very non-classical two-step scenario whereby nucleation is most likely to occur in…
Clusters appear in nature in a diversity of contexts, involving distances as long as the cosmological ones, and down to atoms and molecules and the very small nuclear size. They also appear in several other scenarios, in particular in…
The Classical Nucleation Theory (CNT) has played a key role in crystal nucleation studies since the 19th century and has significantly advanced the understanding of nucleation. However, certain key assumptions of CNT, such as a compact and…
Phase transitions constitute fundamental mechanisms underlying abrupt or qualitative changes in the collective dynamics of interacting units across a wide range of natural and engineered systems. In dynamical networks, such transitions lead…
We develop a theory for nucleation on top of islands in epitaxial growth based on the derivation of lifetimes and rates governing individual microscopic processes. These processes are strongly affected by the additional step edge barrier…
We introduce a novel method for calculating the size of the critical nucleus and the value of the surface tension in systems with first order phase transition. The method is based on classical nucleation theory, and it consists in studying…
We report simulations on the homogeneous liquid-fcc nucleation of charged colloids for both low and high contact energy values. As a precursor for crystal formation, we observe increased local order at the position where the crystal will…
In many systems in condensed matter physics and quantum field theory, first order phase transitions are initiated by the nucleation of bubbles of the stable phase. In homogeneous nucleation theory the nucleation rate $\Gamma$ can be written…
Both simple and sophisticated models are frequently used in an attempt to understand how real nuclei breakup when subjected to large excitation energies, a process known as nuclear multifragmentation. Many of these models assume…
One possible way in which phase transitions in the early universe may have ocurred is via nucleation of bubbles of the new phase (true vacuum) in the old phase (false vacuum). The technique most widely used to compute the probability of…
The theory of false vacuum decay in a thermal system may have a cross-over from predominantly thermal transitions to quantum transitions as the temperature is decreased. New numerical methods and results are presented here that can be used…
Nucleation is a key step in the synthesis of new material from solution. Well-established lattice-gas models can be used to gain insight into the basic physics of nucleation pathways involving a single nucleus type. In many situations a…
Atomic nuclei are quantum many-body systems of protons and neutrons held together by strong nuclear forces. Under the proper conditions, nuclei can break into two (sometimes three) fragments which will subsequently decay by emitting…
Clustering is one of the most complex phenomena known to the structure of atomic nuclei. A comprehensive description of this ubiquitous phenomenon goes beyond standard shell model and cluster model frameworks. We argue that clustering is a…
Heterogeneous nucleation is a process wherein extrinsic impurities facilitate freezing by lowering nucleation barriers and constitutes the dominant mechanism for crystallization in most systems. Classical nucleation theory (\textsc{Cnt})…