The expansion of strongly interacting matter formed in high-energy nuclear collisions drives the system through the region of phase coexistence. The present study examines the associated spinodal instability and finds that the degree of amplification may be sufficient for the emergence of spinodal patterns that may be utilized as a diagnostic of the hadronization phase transition.

The initial stages of spinodal decomposition were studied by subjecting a critical blend of model polyolefins to a pressure quench and monitoring the evolution by time-resolved small angle neutron scattering. Contrary to the predictions of the widely accepted Cahn-Hilliard-Cook theory, we demonstrate that coarsening of the phase-separated structure begins immediately after the quench and occurs...

Using a novel electrochemical phase-field model, we question the common belief that LixFePO4 nanoparticles separate into Li-rich and Li-poor phases during battery discharge. For small currents, spinodal decomposition or nucleation leads to moving phase boundaries. Above a critical current density (in the Tafel regime), the spinodal disappears, and particles fill homogeneously, which may explain...

A lattice model that displays anomalous density behavior and exhibits a reentrant spinodal is developed. This model is solved in the mean field approximation and the interrelation between density maxima and the reentrance of the spinodal is explicitly demonstrated. The limits of stability of the liquid phase are obtained at positive as well as negative pressures, and the nature of the limits of...

Spinodal Architected Materials In article number 2109304, Glaucio H. Paulino and co-workers report spinodal architected materials with tunable anisotropy to unify optimal design manufacturing of multiscale structures. Mechanical porosity are spatially tailored directly target mechanical function (e.g., stiffness) indirectly promote biological fluid transport conduits). Applications medical pros...

A supercooled liquid is said to have a kinetic spinodal if a temperature Tsp exists below which the liquid relaxation time exceeds the crystal nucleation time. We revisit classical nucleation theory taking into account the viscoelastic response of the liquid to the formation of crystal nuclei and find that the kinetic spinodal is strongly influenced by elastic effects. We introduce a dimensionl...

Phase transformation mechanisms in the AuCu-Pd pseudobinary system were studied by means of electrical resistivity measurements, hardness tests, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. A direct aging method was employed to eliminate the otherwise unavoidable ordering that takes place rapidly during quenching into ice brine, hence it is important to distinguish the ordering proce...

After a rapid increase in temperature across the deconfinement temperature Td to temperatures T ≫ Td, pure gauge theories exhibit unstable long wavelength fluctuations in the approach to equilibrium. This phenomenon is analogous to spinodal decomposition observed in condensed matter physics, and also seen in models of disordered chiral condensate formation. At high temperature, the unstable mod...

The motivation and the challenge in applying the renormalization group for systems with several scaling regimes is briefly outlined. The four dimensional φ4 model serves as an example where a nontrivial low energy scaling regime is identified in the vicinity of the spinodal instability region. It is pointed out that the effective theory defined in the vicinity of the spinodal instability offers...