The Cahn-Hilliard equation is very important in materials science. It is a conservation law which describes important qualitative behaviors of two-phase systems, namely, the phase separation process in a binary alloy. This phenomenon can be observed, for instance, when the alloy is cooled down sufficiently. One then observes a partial nucleation (i.e., the apparition of nucleides in the materia...

We study a one-dimensional lattice gas where particles jump stochastically obeying an exclusion rule and having a "small" drift toward regions of higher concentration. We prove convergence in the continuum limit to a nonlinear parabolic equation whenever the initial density profile satisfies suitable conditions which depend on the strength a of the drift. There is a critical value a c of a. For...

Spinodal decomposition in a model of pure-gauge SU(2) theory that incorporates a deconfinement phase transition is investigated by means of real-time lattice simulations of the fully nonlinear Ginzburg-Landau equation. Results are compared with a Glauber dynamical evolution using Monte Carlo simulations of pure-gauge lattice QCD.

Metastable phases may be spontaneously formed from other metastable phases through nucleation. Here we demonstrate the spontaneous formation of a metastable phase from an unstable equilibrium by spinodal decomposition, which leads to a transient coexistence of stable and metastable phases. This phenomenon is generic within the recently introduced scenario of the landscape-inversion phase transi...

The quantum analogy of the usual spinodal decomposition is explored for the recently achieved binary alkali Bose-Einstein condensates mixture. We conclude that an analogy is possible within the formulation of coupled non-linear Schrödinger equations, and find that the quantum spinodal decomposition consists of two stages. The non-equilibrium stage I is dominated by the fastest growth mode, asso...

The formation of a patterned nanostructure in an AgCo/Pt/MgO~001! thin film is simulated by a technique of combining molecular dynamics and phase-field theory. The dislocation ~strain! network existing in Pt/MgO is used as a template whose pattern is transferred to the AgCo phase in spinodal decomposition, resulting in regular arrays of Co islands that are attracted by the dislocations. The inf...

The ground-state properties of two-dimensional liquid 4 He at zero temperature are studied by means of a quadratic diffusion Monte Carlo method. As interatomic potential we use a revised version of the HFDHE2 Aziz potential which is expected to give a better description of the interaction between helium atoms. The equation of state is determined with great accuracy over a wide range of densitie...

Enhanced production of events with almost equal-sized fragments is experimentally revealed by charge correlations in the multifragmentation of a finite nuclear system selected in Xe central collisions on Sn. The evolution of their weight with the incident energy: 32, 39, 45, 50 AMeV, is measured. Dynamical stochastic mean field simulations performed at 32 AMeV, in which spinodal instabilities a...

Iron cobaltite powders CoxFe3ÿxO4 (1rxr2.46) were synthesized with compositions in between the cobalt ferrite CoFe2O4 and Co2.46Fe0.54O4. The cationic distribution of pure spinel phases was determined by Mössbauer spectroscopy: as Co content increases in the spinel oxide, Co cations replace Fe cations in the octahedral sites and Co cations migrate from octahedral to tetrahedral sites. Saturatio...

We consider the modification of the Cahn-Hilliard equation when a time delay process through a memory function is taken into account. We then study the process of spinodal decomposition in fast phase transitions associated with a conserved order parameter. The introduced memory effect plays an important role to obtain a finite group velocity. Then, we discuss the constraint for the parameters t...