Related papers: Heterogeneous critical nucleation on a completely-…
Nucleation is an activated process in which the system has to overcome a free energy barrier in order for a first-order phase transition between the metastable and the stable phases to take place. In the liquid-to-solid transition the…
An analytical description of nucleation stage in a supersaturated vapor with instantly created supersaturation is given with taking into account the vapor concentration inhomogeneities arising as a result of depletion due to non-stationary…
Wetting of a charged substrate by an electrolyte solution is investigated by means of classical density functional theory applied to a lattice model. Within the present model the pure, i.e., salt-free solvent, for which all interactions are…
We analyze point defect bulk and surface diffusion near the crystal-vacuum interface and show that bulk diffusion is altered by atomic reactions at the surface-vacuum boundary. A new atomic mechanism for point defect generation and…
We consider non-equilibrium phenomena in a very simple model that displays a zero-temperature first-order phase transition. The quantum Ising model with a four-spin exchange is adopted as a general representative of first-order quantum…
We report results of wetting on non-planar and heterogeneous surfaces calculated from an effective interfacial Hamiltonian model. The lack of translational invariance along the substrate induces a series of structural changes on the…
Critical wetting is an elusive phenomenon for solid-fluid interfaces. Using interfacial models we show that the diverging length scales, which characterize complete wetting at an apex, precisely mimic critical wetting with the apex angle…
Electroweak baryogenesis is an attractive mechanism to generate the baryon asymmetry of the Universe via a strong first order electroweak phase transition. We compare the phase transition patterns suggested by the vacuum structure at the…
Ice nucleation is a phenomenon that, despite the relevant implications for life, atmospheric sciences, and technological applications, is far from being completely understood, especially under extreme thermodynamic conditions. In this work…
We reconsider the applicability of classical nucleation theory (CNT) to the calculation of the free energy of solid cluster formation in a liquid and its use to the evaluation of interface free energies from nucleation barriers. Using two…
Quantum criticality is the intriguing possibility offered by the laws of quantum mechanics when the wave function of a many-particle physical system is forced to evolve continuously between two distinct, competing ground states. This…
Transient homogeneous nucleation is studied in the limit of large critical sizes. Starting from pure monomers, three eras of transient nucleation are characterized in the classic Becker-D\"oring kinetic equations with two different models…
We study the interplay between wetting and miscibility of a symmetric polymer mixture via MC simulations and SCF calculations. The film surfaces interact with the monomers via short ranged potentials and the wetting transition is of first…
The epitaxial growth process of a high symmetry surface occurs because adatoms meet and nucleate new islands, that eventually coalesce and complete atomic layers. During multilayer growth, nucleation usually takes place on top of terraces…
Dense matter as it can be found in core-collapse supernovae and neutron stars is expected to exhibit different phase transitions which impact the matter composition and the equation of state, with important consequences on the dynamics of…
Among all the freezing transitions, that of water into ice is probably the most relevant to biology, physics, geology or atmospheric science. In this work we investigate homogeneous ice nucleation by means of computer simulations. We…
We show that sterically interacting self-propelled disks in the presence of random pinning substrates exhibit transitions among a variety of different states. In particular, from a phase separated cluster state, the disks can spread out and…
The nucleation of a lamellar phase from a supercooled homogeneous phase in a fluctuation driven first-order transition is studied, based on a phenomenological free energy due to Brazovskii. The absence of phase coexistence in the…
The premelting of ice is well known, but little is known about how the premelted and solid surfaces convert to each other. In this work, the transition dynamics between two phases are revealed with large-scale molecular dynamics…
The classical fluid dynamics boundary condition of no-slip suggests that variation in the wettability of a solid should not affect the flow of an adjacent liquid. However experiments and molecular dynamics simulations indicate that this is…