A Thermodynamically-Consistent Non-Ideal Stochastic Hard-Sphere Fluid

A grid-free variant of the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is proposed, named the Isotropic DSMC (I-DSMC) method, that is suitable for simulating dense fluid flows at molecular scales. The I-DSMC algorithm eliminates all grid artifacts from the traditional DSMC algorithm; it is Galilean invariant and microscopically isotropic. The stochastic collision rules in I-DSMC are modified to yield a non-ideal structure factor that gives consistent compressibility, as first proposed in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101:075902 (2008)]. The resulting Stochastic Hard Sphere Dynamics (SHSD) fluid is empirically shown to be thermodynamically identical to a deterministic Hamiltonian system of penetrable spheres interacting with a linear core pair potential, well-described by the hypernetted chain (HNC) approximation. We apply a stochastic Enskog kinetic theory for the SHSD fluid to obtain estimates for the transport coefficients that are in excellent agreement with particle simulations over a wide range of densities and collision rates. The fluctuating hydrodynamic behavior of the SHSD fluid is verified by comparing its dynamic structure factor against theory based on the Landau-Lifshitz Navier-Stokes equations. We also study the Brownian motion of a nano-particle suspended in an SHSD fluid and find a long-time power-law tail in its velocity autocorrelation function consistent with hydrodynamic theory and molecular dynamics calculations.Comment: 30 pages, revision adding some clarifications and a new figure. See also arXiv:0803.035

Phase transition in inelastic disks

This letter investigates the molecular dynamics of inelastic disks without external forcing. By introducing a new observation frame with a rescaled time, we observe the virtual steady states converted from asymptotic energy dissipation processes. System behavior in the thermodynamic limit is carefully investigated. It is found that a phase transition with symmetry breaking occurs when the magnitude of dissipation is greater than a critical value.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Stacking Entropy of Hard Sphere Crystals

Classical hard spheres crystallize at equilibrium at high enough density. Crystals made up of stackings of 2-dimensional hexagonal close-packed layers (e.g. fcc, hcp, etc.) differ in entropy by only about $10^{-3}k_B$ per sphere (all configurations are degenerate in energy). To readily resolve and study these small entropy differences, we have implemented two different multicanonical Monte Carlo algorithms that allow direct equilibration between crystals with different stacking sequences. Recent work had demonstrated that the fcc stacking has higher entropy than the hcp stacking. We have studied other stackings to demonstrate that the fcc stacking does indeed have the highest entropy of ALL possible stackings. The entropic interactions we could detect involve three, four and (although with less statistical certainty) five consecutive layers of spheres. These interlayer entropic interactions fall off in strength with increasing distance, as expected; this fall-off appears to be much slower near the melting density than at the maximum (close-packing) density. At maximum density the entropy difference between fcc and hcp stackings is $0.00115 +/- 0.00004 k_B$ per sphere, which is roughly 30% higher than the same quantity measured near the melting transition.Comment: 15 page

Free energies of crystalline solids: a lattice-switch Monte Carlo method

We present a method for the direct evaluation of the difference between the free energies of two crystalline structures, of different symmetry. The method rests on a Monte Carlo procedure which allows one to sample along a path, through atomic-displacement-space, leading from one structure to the other by way of an intervening transformation that switches one set of lattice vectors for another. The configurations of both structures can thus be sampled within a single Monte Carlo process, and the difference between their free energies evaluated directly from the ratio of the measured probabilities of each. The method is used to determine the difference between the free energies of the fcc and hcp crystalline phases of a system of hard spheres.Comment: 5 pages Revtex, 3 figure

Long-Time Behavior of Velocity Autocorrelation Function for Interacting Particles in a Two-Dimensional Disordered System

The long-time behavior of the velocity autocorrelation function (VACF) is investigated by the molecular dynamics simulation of a two-dimensional system which has both a many-body interaction and a random potential. With strengthening the random potential by increasing the density of impurities, a crossover behavior of the VACF is observed from a positive tail, which is proportional to t^{-1}, to a negative tail, proportional to -t^{-2}. The latter tail exists even when the density of particles is the same order as the density of impurities. The behavior of the VACF in a nonequilibrium steady state is also studied. In the linear response regime the behavior is similar to that in the equilibrium state, whereas it changes drastically in the nonlinear response regime.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Food Preservation--Plan Ahead

Publication gives instructions on how to prepare for preserving your own food, including equipment needed, preparation instructions, and hints for a successful preservation process

Coulomb Excitation of Multi-Phonon Levels of the Giant Dipole Resonance

A closed expression is obtained for the cross-section for Coulomb excitation of levels of the giant dipole resonance of given angular momentum and phonon number. Applications are made to the Goldhaber-Teller and Steinwedel-Jensen descriptions of the resonance, at non-relativistic and relativistic bombarding energies.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

A Consistent Boltzmann Algorithm

The direct simulation Monte Carlo method for the Boltzmann equation is modified by an additional displacement in the advection process and an enhanced collision rate in order to obtain the exact hard sphere equation of state at all densities. This leads to consistent thermodynamic and transport properties in the low density (Boltzmann) regime. At higher densities transport properties are comparable to the predictions of the Enskog model. The algorithm is faster than molecular dynamics at low and moderate densities and readily run on a parallel architectur