| Dynamical Study of Polydisperse Hard-Sphere System (2009) | |||||||||
Abstract | |||||||||
| We study the phase diagram and the phase transitions of a polydisperse hard-sphere system by nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. It is clarified that the width of the coexistence phase between the fluid and crystal phases, with respect to the packing fraction $\phi$, becomes narrower as the strength of polydispersity $\Delta$ increases, and disappears beyond the critical point $(\phi_c, \Delta_c)$. In the supercritical region, a disordered solid (DS) phase exists, which lacks both fluidity and periodicity. The fluid-DS and crystal-DS phase boundaries are found to be simply given by two lines; $\phi = \phi_c$ for $\Delta > \Delta_c$ and $\Delta = \Delta_c$ for $\phi > \phi_c$, respectively. The former indicates a glasslike dynamical transition and the latter indicates polydispersity-driven crystal melting.. Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures | |||||||||
Publication details | |||||||||
| |||||||||