VALIDITY OF STOCHASTIC MEAN-FIELD SIMULATIONS OF CLASSICAL LIQUID-GASDECOMPOSITION

In this letter we investigate, in the context of classical systems, th e validity of the recently developed stochastic mean-field approaches to describe the dynamics of liquid-gas first-order phase transitions. For a classical Van der Waals fluid we compare the exact many-body dyn amics to the prediction of a stochastic Boltzmann description. This co mparison shows that stochastic mean field approaches are able to well describe the fragment formation occurring by spinodal decomposition. T his success is related to the fact that, also in the exact classical m any-body simulation, the early drop formation is dominated by the most unstable zero-sound modes.