Remarks about metastability

Abstract: "Processes that involve disparate length scales and which are only metastable are inherent to the investigation of mesoscopic and microscopic systems. We focus here on a mechanism we believe to be deeply intertwined with these properties. This is the competition between the thermodynamic energy and nearness in the weak topology for the distribution of microscopic variables whose averages describe the evolution of the macroscopic system. Brief examples show metastable evolution and the possibility of accommodating additional fine scale variables."