Metastability in the random-field Ising model

Abstract

Effects of metastability in random-field Ising systems are calculated for domains that are both curved and rough. Villain's and Bruinsma and Aeppli's scaling forms for the domain size are obtained from the same approach and the crossover between them is simply explained. Generalizations to random fields with nonzero averages lead to a ``freezing line'' and are relevant to experiments on binary-fluid mixtures in gels and in porous media.