Kawasaki Dynamics with Two Types of Particles: Stable/Metastable Configurations and Communication Heights

This is the second in a series of three papers in which we study a two-dimensional lattice gas consisting of two types of particles subject to Kawasaki dynamics at low temperature in a large finite box with an open boundary. Each pair of particles occupying neighboring sites has a negative binding energy provided their types are different, while each particle has a positive activation energy that depends on its type. There is no binding energy between particles of the same type. At the boundary of the box particles are created and annihilated in a way that represents the presence of an infinite gas reservoir. We start the dynamics from the empty box and are interested in the transition time to the full box. This transition is triggered by a critical droplet appearing somewhere in the box.