Statistical theory of the decay of metastable states

Abstract

A procedure is outlined for the first-principles calculation of the rate of decay of a metastable phase. The model on which the calculation is based is sufficiently general to describe a wide variety of thermally activated nucleation and growth processes, hopefully even including decay of superflow in liquid helium. The theory provides a definite prescription for calculating both the activation free-energies and the fundamental fluctuation rates which appear in the conventional formulae describing such processes.