  The dynamics of the 2D Potts ferromagnet when quenched below the transition
temperature is investigated in the case of discontinuous phase transition,
which is interesting for understandingthe non equilibrium dynamics of systems
with many competing equivalent low temperature phases, that appears to be not
much explored. After briefly reviewing some recent findings, we focus on the
numerical study of quenches just below the transition temperature on square
lattices. We show that, up to a certain time, metastable states can be observed
for which energy stays constant above the equilibrium energy and the
self-correlation function displays a fast decay.
