Because of thermocapillary flow or other mechanisms, particles move in temperature and concentration gradients. In a system undergoing a first-order phase transition via nucleation and growth, such gradients are caused by particles themselves. This leads to a long-range interaction in which particles will attract or repel, depending on their growth rates. For the case of attraction, particles organize into clusters, while repelling particles form more uniform particle distributions where fluctuations are leveled out. The implications of this effect for materials processing are discussed.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.55.7253