HOMOGENEOUS NUCLEATION OF SPHERICAL DROPLETS AND BUBBLES - AN ANALYSIS USING THE DENSITY-FUNCTIONAL METHOD

The homogeneous nucleation rate of spherical nuclei in a Yukawa fluid is studied using non-classical nucleation theory based on the density functional method. The nonlocal model of Sullivan is used to character ize this fluid, which is shown to have the same mathematical structure as the well-known local Cahn-Hilliard model. By further employing the double-parabola model for the free energy density, this model becomes almost equivalent to the local square-gradient model used by the pres ent author. The homogeneous nucleation rate evaluated from this model is consistent with the previous numerical results for a similar model acid also with various experimental results.