FINITE-SIZE-SCALING OF METASTABILITY IN FIRST-ORDER TRANSITIONS

Microcanonical Monte Carlo simulations have been carried out for the e xtended 2d XY-model and the 2d q = 10 state Potts model undergoing fir st order transitions. It has been found that the temperature dependenc e of the physical quantities exhibit ''S''-shaped nature at the first order transition. The excursion into the metastable branch is found to increase by reducing the system size. The metastability is found to s cale with the linear dimension of the system.