Critical fluctuations and anomalous transport in soft Yukawa-Langevin systems

Simulation of a Langevin-dynamics model demonstrates emergence of critical fluctuations and anomalous grain transport which have been observed in experiments on "soft" quasi-two-dimensional dusty plasma clusters. It has been suggested that these anomalies derive from particular non-equilibrium physics, but our model does not contain such physics: the grains are confined by an external potential, interact via static Yukawa forces, and are subject to stochastic heating and dissipation from neutrals. One remarkable feature is emergence of leptokurtic probability distributions of grain displacements $\xi(\tau)$ on time-scales $\tau<\tau_{\Delta}$, where $\tau_{\Delta}$ is the time at which the standard deviation $\sigma(\tau)\equiv ^{1/2}$ approaches the mean inter-grain distance $\Delta$. Others are development of humps in the distributions on multiples of $\Delta$, anomalous Hurst exponents, and transitions from leptokurtic towards Gaussian displacement distributions on time scales $\tau>\tau_{\Delta}$. The latter is a signature of intermittency, here interpreted as a transition from bursty transport associated with hopping on intermediate time scales to vortical flows on longer time scales.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure

Three dimensional complex plasma structures in a combined radio frequency and direct current discharge

We report on the first detailed analysis of large three dimensional (3D) complex plasma structures in experiments performed in pure rf and combined rf+dc discharge modes. Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) is generated by an rf coil wrapped around the vertically positioned cylindrical glass tube at a pressure of 0.3 mbar. In addition, dc plasma can be generated by applying voltage to the electrodes at the ends of the tube far from the rf coil. The injected monodisperse particles are levitated in the plasma below the coil. A scanning laser sheet and a high resolution camera are used to determine the 3D positions of about $10^5$ particles. The observed bowl-shaped particle clouds reveal coexistence of various structures, including well-distinguished solid-like, less ordered liquid-like, and pronounced string-like phases. New criteria to identify string-like structures are proposed.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

Structural properties of dense hard sphere packings

The structural properties of dense random packings of identical hard spheres (HS) are investigated. The bond order parameter method is used to obtain detailed information on the local structural properties of the system for different packing fractions $\phi$, in the range between $\phi=0.53$ and $\phi=0.72$. A new order parameter, based on the cumulative properties of spheres distribution over the rotational invariant $w_6$, is proposed to characterize crystallization of randomly packed HS systems. It is shown that an increase in the packing fraction of the crystallized HS system first results in the transformation of the individual crystalline clusters into the global three-dimensional crystalline structure, which, upon further densification, transforms into alternating planar layers formed by different lattice types.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Instantaneous shear modulus of Yukawa fluids across coupling regimes

The high frequency (instantaneous) shear modulus of three-dimensional Yukawa systems is evaluated in a wide parameter range from the very weakly coupled gaseous state to the strongly coupled fluid at the crystallization point (Yukwa melt). This allows us to quantify how shear rigidity develops with increasing coupling and inter-particle correlations. The radial distribution functions (RDFs) needed to calculate the excess shear modulus have been obtained from extensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. MD results demonstrate that fluid RDFs appear quasi-universal on the curves parallel to the melting line of a Yukawa solid in accordance with the isomorph theory of Roskilde-simple systems. This quasi-universality allows us to simplify considerably calculations of quantities involving integrals of the RDF (elastic moduli represent just one relevant example). The calculated reduced shear modulus grows linearly with the coupling parameter at weak coupling and approaches a quasi-constant asymptote at strong coupling. The asymptotic value at strong coupling is in reasonably good agreement with the existing theoretical approximation. © 2020 Author(s).The work leading to this publication was partly supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the German Aerospace Center (DLR). We would like to thank Hubertus Thomas for reading the manuscript

Nucleation instability in super-cooled Cu-Zr-Al glass-forming liquids

Special role in computer simulations of supercooled liquid and glasses is played by few general models representing certain classes of real glass-forming systems. Recently, it was shown that one of the most widely used model glassformers -- Kob-Andersen binary Lennard-Jones mixture -- crystalizes in quite lengthy molecular dynamics simulations and, moreover, it is in fact a very poor glassformer at large system sizes. Thus, our understanding of crystallization stability of model glassformers is far from complete due to the fact that relatively small system sizes and short timescales have been considered so far. Here we address this issue for two embedded atom models intensively used last years in numerical studies of Cu-Zr-(Al) bulk metallic glasses. We consider ${\rm Cu_{64.5}Zr_{35.5}}$ and ${\rm Cu_{46}Zr_{46}Al_{8}}$ alloys as those having high glass-forming ability. Exploring their structural evolution at continuous cooling and isothermal annealing, we observe that both systems nucleate in sufficiently lengthy simulations, though ${\rm Cu_{46}Zr_{46}Al_{8}}$ demonstrate order of magnitude higher critical nucleation time. Moreover, ${\rm Cu_{64.5}Zr_{35.5}}$ is actually unstable to crystallization for large system sizes ($N > 20,000$). Both systems crystallize with the formation of tetrahedrally close packed Laves phases of different types. We reveal that structure of both systems in liquid and glassy state contains comparable amount of polytetrahedral clusters. We argue that nucleation instability of simulated ${\rm Cu_{64.5}Zr_{35.5}}$ alloy is due to the fact that its composition is very close to that for stable ${\rm Cu_2 Zr}$ compound with C15 Laves phase structure.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

Structure and glass-forming ability of simulated Ni-Zr alloys

Binary Cu-Zr system is a representative bulk glassformer demonstrating high glass forming ability due to pronounced icosahedral local ordering. From the first glance, Ni-Zr system is the most natural object to expect the same behavior because nickel and copper are neighbours in the periodic table and have similar physicochemical properties. However, doing molecular dynamics simulations of $\rm Ni_{\alpha}Zr_{1-\alpha}$ alloys described by embedded atom model potential, we observe different behaviour. We conclude that the Ni-Zr system has the same glass-forming ability as an additive binary Lennard-Jones mixture without any chemical interaction. The structural analysis reveals that icosahedral ordering in Ni-Zr alloys is much less pronounced than that in the Cu-Zr ones. We suggest that lack of icosahedral ordering due to peculiarities of interatomic interactions is the reason of relatively poor glass-forming ability of Ni-Zr system

Freezing and melting of 3D complex plasma structures under microgravity conditions driven by neutral gas pressure manipulation

Freezing and melting of large three-dimensional complex plasmas under microgravity conditions is investigated. The neutral gas pressure is used as a control parameter to trigger the phase changes: Complex plasma freezes (melts) by decreasing (increasing) the pressure. Evolution of complex plasma structural properties upon pressure variation is studied. Theoretical estimates allow us to identify main factors responsible for the observed behavior.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett. (in press); 4 pages, 4 figure