Ostwald Ripening in Two Dimensions : Treatment with PairwiseInteractions

1 Ostwald ripening is the last stage of the evolution of a system with two coexisting phases. It is a relatively simple non-equilibrium phenomenon with several interesting features. For example, as the system coarsens it goes through a scaling state, one wich looks the same (up to an overall length scale, which grows) at all times. The dynamics of the problem can be mapped, in two dimensions, onto an evolving Coulomb system. In this work we present a brief summary of a novel theoretical approach to this problem, based on an analytic derivation (using a mean eld approach) of an eeective two-body interaction between droplets of the minority phase. The resulting interacting many-body dynamics is solved by a very eecient numerical algorithm, allowing us to follow the evolution of more than 10 6 droplets on a simple workstation. The results are in excellent agreement with recent experiments. We dedicate this paper to Leo Kadanoo on the occasion of his 60th birthday, and wish him many more years of fun and joy doing physics.