KINETICS OF PHASE ORDERING IN SYSTEMS WITH COMPETING INTERACTIONS

After a review of our recent results of phase ordering kinetics in sys tems with competing interactions, we describe new results related to O stwald ripening obtained through a study of the effects of a long-rang e repulsive interaction on the classical coarsening mechanism of Lifsh itz and Slyozov. Beginning with a Langevin description, we derive a se t of interface equations describing both the growth and motion of drop lets and solve numerically. We study two regimes: in one, the system r eaches hexagonal order and the droplet distribution function becomes a delta function; in the other, the system is disordered and polydisper se with a strong coupling between the position and the size of the dro plets.