Kinetics of the Q-State Potts Model in Two Dimensions

An efficient Monte Carlo procedure is applied to the study of the kinetics of low-and high-Q-state Potts models quenched from an initial high-temperature (T≫T_c )    state to very low temperatures (T≃0). After an initial transient period, the mean domain size, R, increases algebraically with time as R∼Ctn. The exponent n decreases from ½ for Q=2 (Ising model) to 0.38 for large Q. The change in n is attributed to a coalescence process which becomes increasingly effective with decreasing Q. For large Q, the prefactor C is proportional to Q^½.