Phase separation and critical percolation in bidimensional spin-exchange models

Abstract

Binary mixtures prepared in an homogeneous phase and quenched into a two-phase region phase-separate via a coarsening process whereby domains of the two phases grow in time. With a numerical study of a spin-exchange model we show that this dynamics first takes a system with equal density of the two species to a critical percolation state. We prove this claim and we determine the time-dependence of the growing length associated to this process with the scaling analysis of the statistical and morphological properties of the clusters of the two phases.

6 pages, 9 figures