Effect of compressibility on the quantum decay of metastable phase at low temperatures

The finite compressibility of the metastable phase, which leads to a temperature dependence of the nucleation probability w, is considered in the problem of quantum nucleation of the stable phase in a first-order phase transition. For small values of temperature, ln[w(T)/w(0)] ∼ T4, and the nature of transition to the activation tunneling regime remains the same as for zero compressibility (first-order transition).