Evidence for spinodal singularities in high-dimensional nearest-neighbor ising models

Abstract

Conventional theories of nucleation predict that the metastable state has an average lifetime which monotonically decreases as the system is quenched further from the condensation point. However, theories based on the coarsegrained Ginzburg-Landau free energy functional seem to indicate that for systems above six dimensions there is a sharp spinodal dividing the metastable and unstable regimes where the lifetime of the metastable state diverges. Monte Carlo simulations are used to investigate this discrepency. Both nucleation rates and bulk susceptibility measurements seem to support the prediction of the Ginzburg-Landau theories.