This is the Version of Record (VoR) of the following article: Gallo, M., Occhioni, F., Daniele, R., & Casciola, C.M. (2026). Hydrodynamical pathways in the phase change of real fluids. Communications Physics, 9, 220. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-026-02639-y This work presents a theoretical framework combining large deviation theory, multiphase fluctuating hydrodynamics, and real fluid thermodynamics to compute the most probable nucleation pathways in metastable liquids. The framework identifies optimal trajectories connecting metastable and stable states, determining the full spatiotemporal structure of the nucleation process. The results reveal that nucleation is not solely governed by thermodynamic forces, but is also shaped by hydrodynamic phenomena such as wave propagation and inertial effects. The approach predicts boiling thresholds for water, nitrogen, and helium in agreement with experiments, providing a unified, predictive description of phase-change kinetics that links microscopic fluctuations to macroscopic hydrodynamic observables. This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, grant agreement No. 101163330 (ERC-STG E-Nucl., PI M. Gallo).
Gallo et al. (Thu,) studied this question.