Communications in Mathematical Sciences

Volume 10 (2012)

Number 4

Numerical study for the nucleation of one-dimensional stochastic Cahn-Hilliard dynamics

Pages: 1105 – 1132

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4310/CMS.2012.v10.n4.a4

Authors

Tiejun Li (Peking University, Beijing, China)

Pingwen Zhang (Peking University, Beijing, China)

Wei Zhang (Peking University, Beijing, China)

Abstract

We consider the nucleation of one-dimensional stochastic Cahn-Hilliard dynamics with the standard double well potential. We design the string method for computing the most probable transition path in the zero temperature limit based on large deviation theory. We derive the nucleation rate formula for the stochastic Cahn-Hilliard dynamics through finite dimensional discretization. We also discuss the algorithmic issues for calculating the nucleation rate, especially the high dimensional sampling for computing the determinant ratios.

Keywords

Cahn-Hilliard equation, large deviation theory, nucleation rate, string method, Metropolis-Hastings algorithm

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification

60H35, 65Z05, 82C26

Published 23 July 2012