Statistical theory of homogeneous nucleation in vapor instantaneously or gradually transferred to a metastable state

The probability of a certain number of supercritical drops forming in a sup ersaturated vapor is calculated with allowance made for random fluctuations in the number of drops. Both instantaneous and gradually rising supersatur ations are considered. The problem can be solved analytically owing to the strong nonlinearity of the nucleation process. Provided that the total numb er of drops is Sufficiently great, its distribution is normal, with the sta ndard deviation differing markedly from that of the Poisson distribution an d dependent on the way in which the metastable state was created. Despite t he strong nonlinearity of the process, the average total number of drops eq uals that predicted by classical theory.