53 research outputs found
Test of the Kolmogorov-Johnson-Mehl-Avrami picture of metastable decay in a model with microscopic dynamics
The Kolmogorov-Johnson-Mehl-Avrami (KJMA) theory for the time evolution of
the order parameter in systems undergoing first-order phase transformations has
been extended by Sekimoto to the level of two-point correlation functions.
Here, this extended KJMA theory is applied to a kinetic Ising lattice-gas
model, in which the elementary kinetic processes act on microscopic length and
time scales. The theoretical framework is used to analyze data from extensive
Monte Carlo simulations. The theory is inherently a mesoscopic continuum
picture, and in principle it requires a large separation between the
microscopic scales and the mesoscopic scales characteristic of the evolving
two-phase structure. Nevertheless, we find excellent quantitative agreement
with the simulations in a large parameter regime, extending remarkably far
towards strong fields (large supersaturations) and correspondingly small
nucleation barriers. The original KJMA theory permits direct measurement of the
order parameter in the metastable phase, and using the extension to correlation
functions one can also perform separate measurements of the nucleation rate and
the average velocity of the convoluted interface between the metastable and
stable phase regions. The values obtained for all three quantities are verified
by other theoretical and computational methods. As these quantities are often
difficult to measure directly during a process of phase transformation, data
analysis using the extended KJMA theory may provide a useful experimental
alternative.Comment: RevTex, 21 pages including 14 ps figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. B.
One misprint corrected in Eq.(C1
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