Related papers: Microscopic Description of Critical Bubbles
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…
We introduce a simple generalization of the basic holographic superconductor model in which the spontaneous breaking of a global U(1) symmetry occurs via the Stueckelberg mechanism. This more general setting allows tuning features such as…
Nucleation, commonly associated with discontinuous transformations between metastable and stable phases, is crucial in fields as diverse as atmospheric science and nanoscale electronics. Traditionally, it is considered a microscopic process…
We use holography to study the spinodal instability of a four-dimensional, strongly-coupled gauge theory with a first-order thermal phase transition. We place the theory on a cylinder in a set of homogeneous, unstable initial states. The…
Cosmological phase transitions can proceed via the nucleation of bubbles that subsequently expand and collide. The resulting gravitational wave spectrum depends crucially on the properties of these bubbles. We extend our previous…
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…
Solutions of hydrodynamical equations are presented for an equation of state allowing for a first-order phase transition. The numerical analysis is supplemented by analytical treatment provided the system is close to the critical point. The…
We compute the dynamical prefactor in the nucleation rate of bubbles or droplets in first order phase transitions for the case where both viscous damping and thermal dissipation are significant. This result, which generalizes previous work…
The cubic blue phases of liquid crystals are fascinating and technologically promising examples of hierarchically structured soft materials, comprising ordered networks of defect lines (disclinations) within a liquid crystalline matrix. We…
In the present thesis, the author reviews the physics of cosmological first-order phase transitions that may have occured shortly after the Big Bang. Such transitions proceed via the nucleation and expansion of true vacuum bubbles and give…
First order phase transitions could play a major role in the early universe, providing important phenomenological consequences, such as the production of gravitational waves and the generation of baryon asymmetry. An important aspect that…
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…
In order to study the validity of analytical formulas used in the calculation of characteristic physical quantities related to vacuum bubbles, we conduct several numerical simulations of bubble kinematics in the context of cosmological…
We consider an off-lattice liquid crystal pair potential in strictly two dimensions. The potential is purely repulsive and short-ranged. Nevertheless, by means of a single parameter in the potential, the system is shown to undergo a…
Cold atomic gases offer the prospect of simulating the physics of the very early universe in the laboratory. In the condensate phase, the gas is described by a field theory with key features of high energy particle theory. This paper…
Homogeneous nucleation of a new phase near a second, continuous, transition, is considered. The continuous transition is in the metastable region associated with the first-order phase transition, one of whose coexisting phases is…
The multivariable theory of nucleation [J. Chem. Phys. 124, 124512 (2006)] is applied to the problem of vapor bubbles formation in pure liquids. The presented self-consistent macroscopic theory of this process employs thermodynamics…
We study the formation of vortices in a U(1) gauge theory following a first-order transition proceeding by bubble nucleation, in particular the effect of a low velocity of expansion of the bubble walls. To do this, we use a two-dimensional…
We use holography to develop a physical picture of the real-time evolution of the spinodal instability of a four-dimensional, strongly-coupled gauge theory with a first-order, thermal phase transition. We numerically solve Einstein's…
We study the nearly critical behaviour of holographic superfluids at finite temperature and chemical potential. Using analytic techniques in the bulk, we derive an effective theory for the long wavelength dynamics of gapless and…