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Cumulative distribution functions associated with bubble-nucleation processes in cavitation

Bubble-nucleation processes of a Lennard-Jones liquid are studied by molecular dynamics simulations. Waiting time, which is the lifetime of a superheated liquid, is determined for several system sizes, and the apparent finite-size effect of the nucleation rate is observed. From the cumulative distribution function of the nucleation events, the bubble-nucleation process is found to be not a simple Poisson process but a Poisson process with an additional relaxation time. The parameters of the exponential distribution associated with the process are determined by taking the relaxation time into account, and the apparent finite-size effect is removed. These results imply that the use of the arithmetic mean of the waiting time until a bubble grows to the critical size leads to an incorrect estimation of the nucleation rate.