THERMAL-ACTIVATION OF METASTABLE DECAY - TESTING NUCLEATION THEORY

We study analytically and numerically the decay of a metastable phase in (1 + 1)-dimensional classical field theory coupled to a heat bath. By a numerical simulation we obtain the nucleation barrier as a function of the energy difference between the metastable and stable phases, and compare it to the theoretical prediction from the critical bubble calculation. The numerical results provide strong confirmation of the theory.