Coarsening under Anisotropic Conditions in a Lattice Gas Model

Abstract

Phase segregation under anisotropic non‐equilibrium conditions is studied in the driven lattice gas. We show that, at early times, the degree of segregation of the nonequilibrium system is smaller than for the equilibrium counterpart, and that at late t there is a unique t‐dependent length increasing l(t) ∼ t1/3 for a two‐dimensional macroscopic system. We also identify the basic growth mechanisms, and demonstrate time self‐similarity as well as other interesting features of both the structure factor and the scaling function. The chances are that our findings can be observed experimentally.