Peculiarities of coexistence of phases with different electric conductivities under the influence of an electric current

In this study, using a Ginzburg-Landau model, we show that in the domain of coexistence of phases under the influence of the electric current, the phase equilibrium curve splits into two different curves for the direct and inverse phase transitions. We derived equations for spinodal and binodal lines in a current-carrying system taking into account the difference of electric conductivities of the phases. It is demonstrated that there exist thermodynamic regions where both phases are metastable simultaneously. The latter effect occurs due to the dependence of the nucleus formation work upon the relation between the conductivities of the phases and to the shift of the phase equilibrium curves for the direct and inverse phase transitions. At small electric currents, the region where both phases are metastable simultaneously corresponds to the coexistence of kink and antikink solutions.