There are several, largely empirical laws of recrystallization:
* Thermally activated. The rate of the microscopic mechanisms controlling the nucleation and growth of recrystallized grains depend on the annealing temperature. Arrhenius-type equations indicate an exponential relationship.
* Critical temperature. Following from the previous rule it is found that recrystallization requires a minimum temperature for the necessary atomic mechanisms to occur. This recrystallization temperature decreases with annealing time.
* Critical deformation. The prior deformation applied to the material must be adequate to provide nuclei and sufficient stored energy to drive their growth.
* Deformation affects the critical temperature. Increasing the magnitude of prior deformation, or reducing the deformation temperature, will increase the stored energy and the number of potential nuclei. As a result, the recrystallization temperature will decrease with increasing deformation.
* Initial grain size affects the critical temperature. Grain boundaries are good sites for nuclei to form. Since an increase in grain size results in fewer boundaries this results in a decrease in the nucleation rate and hence an increase in the recrystallization temperature
* Deformation affects the final grain size. Increasing the deformation, or reducing the deformation temperature, increases the rate of nucleation faster than it increases the rate of growth. As a result, the final grain size is reduced by increased deformation.