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Consider a system which is rendered thermodynamically
unstable by a sudden change of parameters, e.g., temperature,
pressure, etc. The system evolves towards its new equilibrium state
via the emergence and growth of domains enriched in the preferred
phase. Problems in this area of "kinetics of phase transitions" have
received much research attention due to their wide applicability. In
this talk, we review our understanding of this area. We conclude by
discussing technologically relevant problems involving mixtures at
surfaces, e.g., surface-directed spinodal decomposition, de-wetting,
etc. |