where k b and b are empirical constants, which are assumed to be independent of temperature. Experimentally, one generally observes that freezing in vials starts from a single "point of origin of freezing", from which the rapid, deterministic spread of a "milky" phase is observed, which occurs together with a nearly instantaneous temperature rise to the equilibrium freezing temperature. We interpret such behavior as a single primary nucleation event at time t nuc followed by rapid, recalescent growth of ice through the entire volume of the vial. As consequence of the rapid formation of ice, we consider the process of nucleation to be adiabatic with respect to the vial: the heat released upon ice formation equals the sensible heat associated to the rise in temperature from the nucleation temperature, T nuc , to the equilibrium freezing temperature of the now partially frozen formulation, T eq , i.e.: