F. Manzo Infinite-volume Metastability: on the shape of early droplets (277K, pdf gzipped) ABSTRACT. We study a very simple model for nucleation-and-growth in infinite volume in the low-temperature limit. Despite its simplicity, this model exhibits a very rich metastable behavior. Depending on the speed of growth, the system goes trough four different regimes: 1) both the ``shape of the critical droplet'' and the typical relaxation time are the same as in finite volume. 2) the ``shape of the critical droplet" and its ``formation rate'' are the same as in finite volume but the ``relaxation time'' is shorter 3) the ``shape of the critical droplet" is the same as in finite volume while the nucleation rate is smaller 4) the ``shape of the critical droplet" is different from what we have in finite volume and its formation rate is smaller than the finite-volume formation rate of the finite-volume droplet.