title: Non-self-averaging nucleation rate due to quenched disorder.
abstract: We study the nucleation of a new thermodynamic phase in the presence of quenched disorder. The quenched disorder is a generic model of both impurities and disordered porous media; both are known to have large effects on nucleation. We find that the nucleation rate is non-self-averaging. This is in a simple Ising model with clusters of quenched spins. We also show that non-self-averaging behaviour is straightforward to detect in experiments, and may be rather common.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XH, UK. r.sear@surrey.ac.uk
authors.forename: Richard P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Sear
mesh_terms: D002627:Chemistry, Physical / Q000379:methods*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003460:Crystallization; D005782:Gels / Q000737:chemistry; D008956:Models, Chemical; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry; D016062:Porosity; D011336:Probability; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D005782:Gels; D011108:Polymers