Related papers: Transient Nucleation near the Mean-Field Spinodal

Spontaneous onset of a low temperature topologically ordered phase in a 2-dimensional (2D) lattice model of uniaxial liquid crystal (LC) was debated extensively pointing to a suspected underlying mechanism affecting the RG flow near the…

We investigate a phase-field-crystal model for homogeneous nucleation. Instead of solving the time evolution of a density field towards equilibrium we use a String Method to identify saddle points in phase space. The saddle points allow to…

First-order phase transitions occur through the nucleation of critical bubbles of the stable phase within the metastable phase. Using holography, we present a fully microscopic description of these bubbles in a strongly coupled,…

Fragmentation of nuclear system by tunneling is discussed in a molecular dynamics simulation coupled with imaginary time method. In this way we obtain informations on the fragmenting systems at low densities and temperatures. These…

In a recent Letter, Friedman and Landsberg discussed the underlying mechanism of explosive phase transitions on complex networks [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 255701 (2009)]. This Brief Report presents a modest, though more insightful extension of…

Nucleation in supersaturated vapor is investigated with two series of molecular dynamics simulations in the canonical ensemble. The applied methods are: (a) analysis of critical nuclei at moderate supersaturations by simulating equilibria…

The surface shape of a spinning bucket of granular material is studied using a continuum model of surface flow developed by Bouchaud et al. and Mehta et al. An experimentally observed central subcritical region is reproduced by the model.…

Understanding the underlying mechanism of crystal nucleation during solidification is a fundamental aspect in the prediction and control of materials properties. Classical nucleation theory (CNT) assumes that homogeneous nucleation occurs…

This Article presents a nonequilibrium thermodynamic theory for the mean-field precipitation, aggregation and pattern formation of colloidal clusters. A variable gradient energy coefficient and the arrest of particle diffusion upon…

The decay of metastable states is dominated by quantum tunneling at low temperatures and by thermal activation at high temperatures. The escape rate of a particle out of a square well is calculated within a semi-classical approximation and…

Droplets abound in nature and technology. In general, they are multicomponent, and, when out of equilibrium, with gradients in concentration, implying flow and mass transport. Moreover, phase transitions can occur, with either evaporation,…

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…

In recent years, neural networks have increasingly been employed to identify critical points of phase transitions. For the tricritical directed percolation model, its steady-state configurations encompass both first-order and second-order…

In quantum field theory, the decay of an extended metastable state into the real ground state is known as ``false vacuum decay'' and it takes place via the nucleation of spatially localized bubbles. Despite the large theoretical effort to…

Bounded plasmas are characterized by a rapid but smooth transition from quasi-neutrality in the volume to electron depletion close to the electrodes and chamber walls. The thin non-neutral region, the boundary sheath, comprises only a small…

The dynamics of supercritical fluids, a state of matter beyond the gas-liquid critical point, changes from diffusive to oscillatory motions at high pressure. This transition is believed to occur across a locus of thermodynamic states called…

We consider a system of spherical particles interacting by means of a pair potential equal to a finite constant for interparticle distances smaller than the sphere diameter and zero outside. The model may be a prototype for the interaction…

We study metastable behaviour in systems of weakly interacting Brownian particles with localised, attractive potentials which are smooth and globally bounded. In this particular setting, numerical evidence suggests that the particles…

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 the Turnbull-Fisher…

We consider the thermodynamic behavior of local fluctuations occurring in a stable or metastable bulk phase. For a system with three or more phases, a simple analysis based on classical nucleation theory predicts that small fluctuations…