Metastability in a four-spin Ising model

Abstract

Slow dynamics and metastability are often seen in models with quenched disorder, but rather harder to find in situations where no such disorder is present and energy or entropy barriers must be generated dynamically. Using Monte Carlo simulations we show that the 3D four-spin interaction Ising model, which possesses no quenched disorder, exhibits rather strong metastability in a broad range of temperatures around its first-order transition point, due to the shape dependence of excitations in the model and the resulting largeness of the associated critical droplets.</p