2,984 research outputs found
A Potential Energy Landscape Study of the Amorphous-Amorphous Transformation in HO
We study the potential energy landscape explored during a
compression-decompression cycle for the SPC/E (extended simple point charge)
model of water. During the cycle, the system changes from low density amorphous
ice (LDA) to high density amorphous ice (HDA). After the cycle, the system does
not return to the same region of the landscape, supporting the interesting
possibility that more than one significantly different configuration
corresponds to LDA. We find that the regions of the landscape explored during
this transition have properties remarkably different from those explored in
thermal equilibrium in the liquid phase
Comment on "First order amorphous-amorphous transformation in silica"
In a recent letter (Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 4629 (2000)), Lacks presents
evidence of a first order amorphous-amorphous transition in silica at T=0. He
calculates the free energy along a path of compression and successive
decompression of a sample of 108 SiO2 units. The free energy of the two
branches cross each other, and this is interpreted as evidence of a first order
transition. We show that this conclusion does not follow from the shown data,
since qualitatively the same phenomenology is obtained in a model where a first
order transition does not exist.Comment: 1 page, 1 figure, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Ice XII in its second regime of metastability
We present neutron powder diffraction results which give unambiguous evidence
for the formation of the recently identified new crystalline ice phase[Lobban
et al.,Nature, 391, 268, (1998)], labeled ice XII, at completely different
conditions. Ice XII is produced here by compressing hexagonal ice I_h at T =
77, 100, 140 and 160 K up to 1.8 GPa. It can be maintained at ambient pressure
in the temperature range 1.5 < T < 135 K. High resolution diffraction is
carried out at T = 1.5 K and ambient pressure on ice XII and accurate
structural properties are obtained from Rietveld refinement. At T = 140 and 160
K additionally ice III/IX is formed. The increasing amount of ice III/IX with
increasing temperature gives an upper limit of T ~ 150 K for the successful
formation of ice XII with the presented procedure.Comment: 3 Pages of RevTeX, 3 tables, 3 figures (submitted to Physical Review
Letters
Amorphous-amorphous transition and the two-step replica symmetry breaking phase
The nature of polyamorphism and amorphous-to-amorphous transition is
investigated by means of an exactly solvable model with quenched disorder, the
spherical s+p multi-spin interaction model. The analysis is carried out in the
framework of Replica Symmetry Breaking theory and leads to the identification
of low temperature glass phases of different kinds. Besides the usual
`one-step' solution, known to reproduce all basic properties of structural
glasses, also a physically consistent `two-step' solution arises. More
complicated phases are found as well, as temperature is further decreased,
expressing a complex variety of metastable states structures for amorphous
systems.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, longer version, new references adde
Theory of Myelin Coiling
A new model is proposed to explain coiling of myelins composed of fluid
bilayers. This model allows the constituent bilayer cylinders of a myelin to be
non-coaxial and the bilayer lateral tension to vary from bilayer to bilayer.
The calculations show that a myelin would bend or coil to lower its free energy
when the bilayer lateral tension is sufficiently large. From a mechanical point
of view, the proposed coiling mechanism is analogous to the classical Euler
buckling of a thin elastic rod under axial compression. The analysis of a
simple two-bilayer case suggests that a bilayer lateral tension of about 1
dyne/cm can easily induce coiling of myelins of typical lipid bilayers. This
model signifies the importance of bilayer lateral tension in determining the
morphology of myelinic structures.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Eur. Phys. J.
Interplay Between Time-Temperature-Transformation and the Liquid-Liquid Phase Transition in Water
We study the TIP5P water model proposed by Mahoney and Jorgensen, which is
closer to real water than previously-proposed classical pairwise additive
potentials. We simulate the model in a wide range of deeply supercooled states
and find (i) the existence of a non-monotonic ``nose-shaped'' temperature of
maximum density line and a non-reentrant spinodal, (ii) the presence of a low
temperature phase transition, (iii) the free evolution of bulk water to ice,
and (iv) the time-temperature-transformation curves at different densities.Comment: RevTeX4, 4 pages, 4 eps figure
Pressure-induced amorphization and polyamorphism in one-dimensional single crystal TiO2 nanomaterials
The structural phase transitions of single crystal TiO2-B nanoribbons were
investigated in-situ at high-pressure using the synchrotron X-ray diffraction
and the Raman scattering. Our results have shown a pressure-induced
amorphization (PIA) occurred in TiO2-B nanoribbons upon compression, resulting
in a high density amorphous (HDA) form related to the baddeleyite structure.
Upon decompression, the HDA form transforms to a low density amorphous (LDA)
form while the samples still maintain their pristine nanoribbon shape. HRTEM
imaging reveals that the LDA phase has an {\alpha}-PbO2 structure with short
range order. We propose a homogeneous nucleation mechanism to explain the
pressure-induced amorphous phase transitions in the TiO2-B nanoribbons. Our
study demonstrates for the first time that PIA and polyamorphism occurred in
the one-dimensional (1D) TiO2 nanomaterials and provides a new method for
preparing 1D amorphous nanomaterials from crystalline nanomaterials.Comment: 4 figure
Liquid-liquid equilibrium for monodisperse spherical particles
A system of identical particles interacting through an isotropic potential
that allows for two preferred interparticle distances is numerically studied.
When the parameters of the interaction potential are adequately chosen, the
system exhibits coexistence between two different liquid phases (in addition to
the usual liquid-gas coexistence). It is shown that this coexistence can occur
at equilibrium, namely, in the region where the liquid is thermodynamically
stable.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures. Published versio
Physics of the liquid-liquid critical point
Within the inherent structure (IS) thermodynamic formalism introduced by
Stillinger and Weber [F. H. Stillinger and T. A. Weber, Phys. Rev. A {\bf 25},
978 (1982)] we address the basic question of the physics of the liquid-liquid
transition and of density maxima observed in some complex liquids such as water
by identifying, for the first time, the statistical properties of the potential
energy landscape (PEL) responsible for these anomalies.
We also provide evidence of the connection between density anomalies and the
liquid-liquid critical point. Within the simple (and physically transparent)
model discussed, density anomalies do imply the existence of a liquid-liquid
transition.Comment: Physical Review Letters, in publicatio
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