Langer, J. S. (1969). Statistical theory of the decay of metastable states. Annals of Physics, 54(2), 258–275. doi:10.1016/0003-4916(69)90153-5.
Not read: no lawful full text was reached on 2026-10-27 (see the status note). The summary is drawn from what the work is standardly cited for and from the exchange’s description of it. A reading should check it first.
Why this is here
A14 §6 set nucleation against instability as two routes to structure: from a locally stable state a finite fluctuation crosses a barrier, against small differences amplified once a state is unstable, with different predictions for onset, waiting times and seeds. It is QUESTION-281’s second route. The record holds and has read Vekilov on nucleation (LIT-919, NOTE-708), which A14 did not cite, and holds Langer on crystal growth (LIT-927, unavailable).