Related papers: Competitive Heterogeneous Nucleation onto a Micros…
We introduce a simple nearest-neighbor spin model with multiple metastable phases, the number and decay pathways of which are explicitly controlled by the parameters of the system. With this model we can construct, for example, a system…
Phase transitions into a new phase that is itself metastable are common; instead of the equilibrium phase nucleating a metastable phase does so. When this occurs the system is sometimes said to be obeying Ostwald's rule. We show how this…
Metastability is observed when a physical system is close to a first order phase transition. In this paper the metastable behavior of a two state reversible probabilistic cellular automaton with self-interaction is discussed. Depending on…
The problem of competitive nucleation in the framework of Probabilistic Cellular Automata is studied from the dynamical point of view. The dependence of the metastability scenario on the self--interaction is discussed. An intermediate…
Capillarity approximation is used to study the free-energy landscape of nucleation when an intermediate metastable phase exists. The critical nucleus that corresponds to the saddle point of the free-energy landscape as well as the whole…
A system of a metastable phase with several sorts of heterogeneous centers is considered. An analytical theory for the process of decay in such a system has been constructed. The free energy of formation of a critical embryo is assumed to…
A diffuse-interface model for microstructure with an arbitrary number of components and phases was developed from basic thermodynamic and kinetic principles and formalized within a variational framework. The model includes a composition…
A system of a metastable phase with several sorts of heterogeneous centers is considered. An analytical theory for the process of decay in such a system has been constructed. The free energy of formation of a critical embryo is assumed to…
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…
Phase transformations such as freezing typically start with heterogeneous nucleation. Heterogeneous nucleation near a wetting transition, of a crystalline phase is studied. The wetting transition occurs at or near a vapour-liquid transition…
In many systems, nucleation of a stable solid may occur in the presence of other (often more than one) metastable phases. These may be polymorphic solids or even liquid phases. In such cases, nucleation of the solid phase from the melt may…
In simulations of the 2D Ising model, we examine heterogeneous nucleation induced by a small impurity consisting of a line of $l$ fixed spins. As $l$ increases, we identify a limit of stability beyond which the metastable phase is not…
A system of a metastable phase with a pseudo continuous set of the heterogeneous centers is considered. An analytical theory for kinetics of decay of the metastable phase in such a system is constructed. The free energy of formation of a…
Nucleation in the two-dimensional q-state Potts model has been studied by means of Monte-Carlo simulations using the heat-bath dynamics. The initial metastable state has been prepared by magnetic quench of the ordered low-temperature phase.…
Metastable phases can lead to multistep nucleation processes, influencing the liquid-to-solid transition in various systems. In this study, we investigate the homogeneous nucleation of iron's crystalline phases under Earth's inner core…
In this paper, we use the cell dynamics method to study the dynamics of phase transformation when three phases exist. The system we study is a two-dimensional system. The system is able to achieve three phases coexistence, which for…
An algorithm for Monte Carlo simulations is proposed in which the parameter controlling the strength of the transition becomes a dynamical variable and in which efficient transitions are achieved by cluster steps. It allows to avoid the…
The phase transition kinetics in three phase systems was investigated using the numerically efficient cell dynamics method. A phasefield model with a simple analytical free energy and single order parameter was used to study the kinetics…
The role of metastable liquid phases in vapor-crystal nucleation is studied using Density Functional Theory(DFT). The model gives a semi-quantitatively accurate description of both the vapor-liquid-solid phase diagram for both simple fluids…
Competing phases or interactions in complex many-particle systems can result in free energy barriers that strongly suppress thermal equilibration. Here we discuss how extended ensemble Monte Carlo simulations can be used to study the…