Journal of Statistical Physics, Vol. 95, Nos. 5/6, 1999. p. 903-923.
Significant progress has been made in recent years in measuring homogeneous nucleation rates in a variety of liquidvapor and liquidsolid transitions. These studies have revealed serious shortcomings of classical nucleation theory. New theoretical work and simulation studies of simplified model systems have provided a better understanding of homogeneous nucleation, but many challenges remain. This article summarizes some recent developments, with an emphasis on the field-theoretic approach pioneered by Cahn and Hilliard in their study of
nucleation in a two-component incompressible fluid in 1959.