Phase transitions out-of-equilibrium: Domain formation and growth
Jan 8, 199347 pages
Published in:
- Phys.Rev.D 48 (1993) 800-815
e-Print:
- hep-th/9212083 [hep-th]
Report number:
- PITT-92-07,
- CMU-HEP-92-25
Citations per year
Abstract:
We study the dynamics of phase transitions out of equilibrium in weakly coupled scalar field theories. We consider the case in which there is a rapid supercooling from an initial symmetric phase in thermal equilibrium at temperature to a final state at low temperature . In particular we study the formation and growth of correlated domains out of equilibrium. It is shown that the dynamics of the process of domain formation and growth (spinodal decomposition) cannot be studied in perturbation theory, and a non-perturbative self-consistent Hartree approximation is used to study the long time evolution. We find in weakly coupled theories that the size of domains grow at long times as . For very weakly coupled theories, their final size is several times the zero temperature correlation length. For strongly coupled theories the final size of the domains is comparable to the zero temperature correlation length and the transition proceeds faster.Note:
- 37 pages 7 figures (not included), REVTEX, PITT-92-07
- field theory: scalar
- model: weak coupling
- weak coupling: model
- critical phenomena
- thermodynamics
- Hartree approximation
- statistical mechanics
- correlation function
- perturbation theory
- numerical calculations
References(44)
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