The metastable behavior of the three-dimensional stochastic Ising model (II)

The metastable behavior of the stochastic Ising model is studied in a finite three-dimensional torus, in the limit as the temperature goes to zero. The so-called critical droplet is determined, a clear view of the passage from the configuration that all spins are down (-1) to the configuration that all spins axe up (+1) is given and the logarithmic asymptotics of the hitting time of+1 starting at -1 orvice versa is calculated. The proof uses large deviation estimates of a family of exponentially perturbed Markov chains.