Scaling Theory for Metastable States and Their Lifetimes

Abstract

The response of the magnetization to a sudden reversal of the magnetic field is studied in the kinetic Ising model by means of computer experiments on square $N\times N$ lattices. It is found that the nonequilibrium relaxation function fulfills a dynamic scaling hypothesis. The magnetization of the metastable state agrees with predictions of the cluster model and also with an analytic continuation of the linear-model equation of state.