Validity of stochastic mean field simulations of classical liquid-gas decomposition

In this letter we investigate, in the context of classical systems, the validity of the recently developed stochastic mean-field approaches to describe the dynamics of liquid-gas first-order phase transitions. For a classical Van der Waals fluid we compare the exact many-body dynamics to the prediction of a stochastic Boltzmann description. This comparison shows that stochastic mean field approaches are able to well describe the fragment formation occurring by spinodal decomposition. This success is related to the fact that, also in the exact classical many-body simulation, the early drop formation is dominated by the most unstable zero-sound modes.