title: Liquid to solid nucleation via onion structure droplets.
abstract: We study homogeneous nucleation from a deeply quenched metastable liquid to a spatially modulated phase. We find, for a general class of density functional theories, that the universally favored nucleating droplet in dimensions d ≥ 3 is spherically symmetric with radial modulations resembling the layers of an onion. The existence of this droplet has important implications for systems with effective long-range interactions, and potentially applies to polymers, plasmas, and metals.
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Division and CNLS, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
authors.forename: Kipton
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Barros
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Klein