CLAUDIO CASTELLANO, Federico Corberi

ICTP Trieste

Vacancy-mediated phase separation

We study numerically the phase separation of a binary alloy where molecules can exchange position only with one vacancy. We find that at low temperatures for critical quenches the typical domain size grows as t^(1/2) as opposed to the usual t^(1/3) growth law. This fast growth reflects the dominance of mass transport along faceted domain walls. For off-critical concentrations there are long-lived preasymptotic regimes governed by coalescence of diffusing droplets with non trivial growth exponents.