The relation is studied between the phase boundary Cpb and the spinodal point Cs of the ferromagnetic Ising model, in the two dimensional triangular lattice, using a series of approximations in the CVM (cluster variation method) hierarchy. We keep the magnetization M fixed, and extrapolate the temperature difference Tpb(M, n) − Ts(M, n) for n = 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 triangle approximations of the CVM. It is found that the limiting value of the difference is practically zero. Our analysis indicates: (i) The spinodal decomposition is to be treated as a system changing from the quenched initial state, and the “free energy” curve used in the spinodal analysis is not a fixed curve but is changing in time, and (ii) cases can occur in which a quenched system is initially decomposing in the nucleation mode, but switches to the spinodal decomposition mode in time.
