Related papers: Dynamics of homogeneous nucleation
In 1897 Ostwald formulated his step rule for formation of the most stable crystal state for a system with crystal polymorphism. The rule describes the irreversible way a system converts to the crystal with lowest free energy. But in fact…
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…
The conventional theory of homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation in a supersaturated vapor is tested by Monte Carlo simulations of the lattice gas (Ising) model with nearest-neighbor attractive interactions on the simple cubic lattice.…
Heterogeneous nucleation is central to many familiar first-order phase transitions such as the freezing of water and the solidification of metals, and it can also play a crucial role in cosmology. We examine nucleation seeded by preexisting…
We report a new mechanism for nucleation in a monolayer of hexagonally packed monodisperse droplet arrays. Upon cooling, we observe solidified droplets to nucleate their supercooled neighbors giving rise to an autocatalytic-like mechanism…
We analyze a new mechanism for the cosmological QCD first-order phase transition: inhomogeneous nucleation. The primordial temperature fluctuations are larger than the tiny temperature interval, in which bubbles would form in the standard…
In this paper we present the results of two detailed N-body simulations of the interaction of a sample of four massive globular clusters in the inner region of a triaxial galaxy. A full merging of the clusters takes place, leading to a…
Nucleation is an out-of-equilibrium process, which can be strongly affected by the presence of external fields. In this letter, we report a simple extension of classical nucleation theory to systems submitted to an homogeneous shear flow.…
Crystallization of supersaturated liquids usually starts by heterogeneous nucleation. Mounting evidence shows that even homogeneous nucleation in simple liquids takes place in two steps; first a dense amorphous precursor forms, and the…
A new approach that is a combination of classical thermodynamics and macroscopic kinetics is offered for studying the nucleation kinetics in condensed binary solutions. The theory covers the separation of liquid and solid solutions…
We investigate the role of thermal fluctuations and of the finite number of monomers in small clusters of carbon atoms on the nucleation rate of carbonaceous grains. Thermal fluctuations are due to the quantized nature of the energy…
By employing brute-force molecular dynamics, umbrella sampling, and seeding simulations, we investigate homogeneous nucleation during melting and freezing of hard spheres. We provide insights into these opposing phase transitions from the…
Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is applied to the condensation process of supersaturated vapors of methane, ethane, and carbon dioxide. Simulations of systems with up to a million particles were conducted with a massively parallel MD…
The classical theory of grain nucleation suffers from both theoretical and predictive deficiencies. We strive to alleviate these deficiencies in our understanding of dust formation and growth by utilizing an atomistic model of nucleation.…
In spallation neutron sources, liquid mercury is the subject of big thermal and pressure shocks, upon adsorbing the proton beam. These changes can cause unstable bubbles in the liquid, which can damage the structural material. While there…
The decay of globular clusters to the center of their mother galaxy corresponds to carrying a quantity of mass sufficient to sustain the gravitational activity of a small pre-existing nucleus and to accrete it in a significant way. This is…
Molecular simulations have provided valuable insight into the microscopic mechanisms underlying homogeneous ice nucleation. While empirical models have been used extensively to study this phenomenon, simulations based on first-principles…
The dynamics of phase transitions plays a crucial r\^ole in the so-called interface between high energy particle physics and cosmology. Many of the interesting results generated during the last fifteen years or so rely on simplified…
One of the most ubiquitous and technologically important phenomena in nature is the nucleation of homogeneous flowing systems. The microscopic effects of shear on a nucleating system are still imperfectly understood, although in recent…
By comparing the grain sizes under different nucleation conditions, the different nucleation mechanisms were investigated. The primitive nuclei origin at some specific interface, and subsequently disperse into the bulk melt with melt flow.…