Spontaneous cavitation in a stretched Lennard-Jones liquid at temperatures above and below the triple point has been studied by the direct forward flux sampling and the seeding methods. A change in the nucleation rate of 230 orders of magnitude has been traced. The data obtained have been compared with calculations according to classical nucleation theory in a capillarity approximation. A discrepancy reaching 16 orders of magnitude in nucleation rate between the results of theory and simulation has been found. It has been shown that the reason for this discrepancy consists in the size dependence of the surface free energy of critical bubbles. The first-order and second-order corrections to the surface free energy of these bubbles with respect to the curvature of the interface have been determined.

通过直接正向通量采样和播种方法研究了拉伸的Lennard-Jones液体在高于和低于三点温度下的自发空化现象。已经发现成核速率变化了230个数量级。将获得的数据与根据经典成核理论的计算在毛细管近似中进行了比较。理论和模拟结果之间的成核率差异达到16个数量级。已经表明，这种差异的原因在于临界气泡的表面自由能的尺寸依赖性。已经确定了这些气泡相对于界面曲率的表面自由能的一阶和二阶校正。