Kinetics of particle coarsening processes

A nonequilibrium statistical mechanical theory for particle coarsening processes is presented. In this theory, the rate of change of a given particle is determined by both a deterministic and a fluctuation terms, and the particle size distribution (PSD) satisfies Fokker-Planck-type equation. We use a time scaling technique and find the PSD scaled by average particle size as well as the power laws of time dependence of some quantities. The asymptotic scaled PSD is independent of initial condition but does depend on the equilibrium volume fraction. We show that the average radius grows att ^1/3 and the density of particles decays ast ^?1.