Coarsening dynamics of phase-separating systems

When a system such as a binary liquid is cooled rapidly from a homogeneous phase into a two-phase region, domains of the two equilibrium phases form and grow ('coarsen') with time. In the absence of an external drive, such as gravity or an imposed shear flow, a dynamical-scaling regime emerges in which the domain morphology is statistically self-similar at different times, up to ail overall length-scale (coarsening scale) that grows with time. In the first part of the paper, the scaling phenomenology will be reviewed and the time-dependence of the coarsening scale will be discussed in the context of a number of different physical systems and scaling regimes. In the second part, the influence of an external drive, in particular a shear flow, will be addressed and recent developments reviewed. Interesting open questions include the late-time behaviour under shear and whether the coarsening continues indefinitely or is ultimately arrested by the shear flow.