Nonequilibrium structure during phase separation

To establish the nature of the early-stage structures that occur during phase separation, we studied solutions of a nonionic surfactant micellar solution (C12E6 in D2O). We report the existence of long-lived nonequilibrium structures during shallow quenches along the critical isochore. The power-law scattering profile of these structures is consistent with ramified clusters with a fractal dimension D=1.60.1.