Heterogeneity in Classical and Non-Classical Nucleation

TL;DR

This study explores how the nature of nucleation transitions from heterogeneous to homogeneous in Ising models, revealing that long-range interactions are crucial for a true crossover, with distinct survival curve behaviors based on interaction range.

Contribution

It demonstrates that a true crossover from heterogeneous to homogeneous nucleation occurs only with sufficiently long-range interactions in Ising models, highlighting the role of interaction range in nucleation behavior.

Findings

True crossover occurs only with long-range interactions.

Survival curves differ for short-range interactions.

Long-range interactions lead to similar survival curve shapes.

Abstract

We investigate heterogeneous and homogeneous nucleation in nearest-neighbor and long-range Ising models for various quench depths. We find that the system has a true crossover from heterogeneous to homogeneous nucleation for increasing quench depth only if the interaction is sufficiently long-range. The survival curves, defined as the fraction of systems that remain in the metastable state after a given time, have qualitatively different shapes as a function of quench depth for heterogeneous and homogeneous nucleation when the interaction is short-range, but have identical shapes within the accuracy of our data for long-range interactions.