Ordering dynamics in the presence of multiple phases

The dynamics of the 2D Potts ferromagnet, when quenched below the transition temperature, is investigated in the case of a discontinuous phase transition. This is useful for understanding the non-equilibrium dynamics of systems with many competing equivalent low-temperature phases, which appears not to have been explored much. After briefly reviewing some recent findings, we focus on the numerical study of quenches just below the transition temperature on square lattices. We show that, up to a certain time, metastable states can be observed, for which energy stays constant above the equilibrium energy and the self-correlation function displays a fast decay.