Fate of zero-temperature Ising ferromagnets - art. no. 036118

We investigate the relaxation of homogeneous Ising ferromagnets on finite l attices with zero-temperature spin-flip dynamics. On the square lattice, a frozen two-stripe state is apparently reached approximately 3/10 of the tim e, while the ground state is reached otherwise. The asymptotic relaxation i s characterized by two distinct time scales with the longer stemming from t he influence of a long-lived diagonal stripe defect. In greater than two di mensions, the probability to reach the ground state rapidly vanishes as the size increases and the system typically ends up wandering forever within a n iso-energy set of stochastically ''blinking'' metastable states.