No Arabic abstract
In this letter we show that the late-time scaling state in spinodal decomposition is not unique. We performed lattice Boltzmann simulations of the phase-ordering of a 50%-50% binary mixture using as initial conditions for the phase-ordering both a symmetric morphology that was created by symmetric spinodal decomposition and a morphology of one phase dispersed in the other, created by viscoelastic spinodal decomposition. We found two different growth laws at late times, although both simulations differ only in the early time dynamics. The new scaling state consists of dispersed droplets. The growth law associated with this scaling state is consistent with a $Lsim t^{1/2}$ scaling law.
We simulate late-stage coarsening of a 3-D symmetric binary fluid. With reduced units l,t (with scales set by viscosity, density and surface tension) our data extends two decades in t beyond earlier work. Across at least four decades, our own and others individual datasets (< 1 decade each) show viscous hydrodynamic scaling (l ~ a + b t), but b is not constant between runs as this scaling demands. This betrays either the unexpected intrusion of a discretization (or molecular) lengthscale, or an exceptionally slow crossover between viscous and inertial regimes.
We study the phase transition dynamics of a fluid system in which the particles diffuse anisotropically in space. The motivation to study such a situation is provided by systems of interacting magnetic colloidal particles subject to the Lorentz force. The Smoluchowski equation for the many-particle probability distribution then aquires an anisotropic diffusion tensor. We show that anisotropic diffusion results in qualitatively different dynamics of spinodal decomposition compared to the isotropic case. Using the method of dynamical density functional theory, we predict that the intermediate-stage decomposition dynamics are slowed down significantly by anisotropy; the coupling between different Fourier modes is strongly reduced. Numerical calculations are performed for a model (Yukawa) fluid that exhibits gas-liquid phase separation.
Spinodal decomposition is a ubiquitous phenomenon leading to phase separation from a uniform solution. We show that a spinodal decomposition occurs in a unique combination of two rutile compounds of TiO2 and VO2, which are chemically and physically distinguished from each other: TiO2 is a wide-gap insulator with photo catalytic activities and VO2 is assumed to be a strongly correlated electron system which exhibits a dramatic metal-insulator transition at 342 K. The spinodal decomposition takes place below 830 K at a critical composition of 34 mol% Ti, generates a unidirectional composition modulation along the c axis with a wavelength of approximately 6 nm, and finally results in the formation of self-assembled lamella structures made up of Ti-rich and V-rich layers stacked alternately with 30-50 nm wavelengths. A metal-insulator transition is not observed in quenched solid solutions with intermediate compositions but emerges in the thin V-rich layers as the result of phase separation. Interestingly, the metal-insulator transition remains as sharp as in pure VO2 even in such thin layers and takes place at significantly reduced temperatures of 310-340 K, which is probably due to a large misfit strain induced by lattice matching at the coherent interface.
Multifragmentation of a ``fused system was observed for central collisions between 32 MeV/nucleon 129Xe and natSn. Most of the resulting charged products were well identified thanks to the high performances of the INDRA 4pi array. Experimental higher-order charge correlations for fragments show a weak but non ambiguous enhancement of events with nearly equal-sized fragments. Supported by dynamical calculations in which spinodal decomposition is simulated, this observed enhancement is interpreted as a ``fossil signal of spinodal instabilities in finite nuclear systems.
Microscopic stress fields are widely used in molecular simulations to understand mechanical behavior. Recently, decomposition methods of multibody forces to central force pairs between the interacting particles have been proposed. Here, we introduce a force center of a three-body potential and propose different force decompositions that also satisfy the conservation of translational and angular momentum. We compare the force decompositions by stress-distribution magnitude and discuss their difference in the stress profile of a bilayer membrane using coarse-grained and atomistic molecular dynamics simulations.