On the interplay of instabilities in first-order phase transitions

by Alessio Caddeo

Wednesday 28 Oct 2026, 14:30 → 15:30 Europe/Rome

First-order phase transitions involve rich dynamics, from bubble nucleation and expansion to spinodal instabilities. Describing these processes requires understanding how an order parameter interacts with the surrounding fluid. In this talk, I will present an improved fluid-scalar effective description of first-order phase transitions in relativistic theories and test it against a microscopic calculation in a holographic model. I will discuss how the spinodal instability is linked to thermodynamic stability. The holographic results confirm the validity of the effective description at long wavelengths and show that it improves upon a purely hydrodynamic treatment in most cases.