Solvent hydrodynamics speed up crystal nucleation in suspensions of hard spheres

We present a computer simulation study on the crystal nucleation process in suspensions
of hard spheres, fully taking into account the solvent hydrodynamics. If the dynamics of
crystallization in this system were purely diffusive, the crystal nucleation rate would be inversely
proportional to the solvent viscosity. However, we observe that the nucleation rate is enhanced
at high viscosities with respect to the diffusive behaviour. This effect might explain the large
discrepancy between the nuclation rates obtained by simulation and experiment that have been
reported in the literature so far.