174 research outputs found
Potential energy landscape-based extended van der Waals equation
The inherent structures ({\it IS}) are the local minima of the potential
energy surface or landscape, , of an {\it N} atom system.
Stillinger has given an exact {\it IS} formulation of thermodynamics. Here the
implications for the equation of state are investigated. It is shown that the
van der Waals ({\it vdW}) equation, with density-dependent and
coefficients, holds on the high-temperature plateau of the averaged {\it IS}
energy. However, an additional ``landscape'' contribution to the pressure is
found at lower . The resulting extended {\it vdW} equation, unlike the
original, is capable of yielding a water-like density anomaly, flat isotherms
in the coexistence region {\it vs} {\it vdW} loops, and several other desirable
features. The plateau energy, the width of the distribution of {\it IS}, and
the ``top of the landscape'' temperature are simulated over a broad reduced
density range, , in the Lennard-Jones fluid. Fits to the
data yield an explicit equation of state, which is argued to be useful at high
density; it nevertheless reproduces the known values of and at the
critical point
An exploding glass ?
We propose a connection between self-similar, focusing dynamics in nonlinear
partial differential equations (PDEs) and macroscopic dynamic features of the
glass transition. In particular, we explore the divergence of the appropriate
relaxation times in the case of hard spheres as the limit of random close
packing is approached. We illustrate the analogy in the critical case, and
suggest a ``normal form'' that can capture the onset of dynamic self-similarity
in both phenomena.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure
A test of non-equilibrium thermodynamics in glassy systems: the soft-sphere case
The scaling properties of the soft-sphere potential allow the derivation of
an exact expression for the pressure of a frozen liquid, i.e., the pressure
corresponding to configurations which are local minima in its multidimensional
potential energy landscape. The existence of such a relation offers the unique
possibility for testing the recently proposed extension of the liquid free
energy to glassy out-of-equilibrium conditions and the associated expression
for the temperature of the configurational degrees of freedom. We demonstrate
that the non-equilibrium free energy provides an exact description of the
soft-sphere pressure in glass states
Thermodynamic Comparison and the Ideal Glass Transition of A Monatomic Systems Modeled as an Antiferromagnetic Ising Model on Husimi and Cubic Recursive Lattices of the Same Coordination Number
Two kinds of recursive lattices with the same coordination number but
different unit cells (2-D square and 3-D cube) are constructed and the
antiferromagnetic Ising model is solved exactly on them to study the stable and
metastable states. The Ising model with multi-particle interactions is designed
to represent a monatomic system or an alloy. Two solutions of the model exhibit
the crystallization of liquid, and the ideal glass transition of supercooled
liquid respectively. Based on the solutions, the thermodynamics on both
lattices was examined. In particular, the free energy, energy, and entropy of
the ideal glass, supercooled liquid, crystal, and liquid state of the model on
each lattice were calculated and compared with each other. Interactions between
particles farther away than the nearest neighbor distance are taken into
consideration. The two lattices show comparable properties on the transition
temperatures and the thermodynamic behaviors, which proves that both of them
are practical to describe the regular 3-D case, while the different effects of
the unit types are still obvious.Comment: 27 pages, 13 figure
The distance between Inherent Structures and the influence of saddles on approaching the mode coupling transition in a simple glass former
We analyze through molecular dynamics simulations of a Lennard-Jones binary
mixture the statistics of the distances between inherent structures (IS)
sampled at temperatures above the mode coupling transition temperature T_MCT.
We take equilibrated configurations and randomly perturb the coordinates of a
given number of particles. After that we take the nearest IS of both the
original configuration and the perturbed one and evaluate the distance between
them. This distance presents an inflection point near T~1 with a strong
decrease below this temperature and goes to a small but nonzero value on
approaching T_MCT. In the low temperature region we study the statistics of
events which give zero distance, i.e. dominated by minima, and find evidence
that the number of saddles decreases exponentially near T_MCT. This implies
that saddles continue to exist even for T<=T_MCT. As at T_MCT the extrapolated
diffusivity goes to zero our results imply that there are saddles associated
with nondiffusional events at T<T_MCT.Comment: 5 pages, 5 ps figure
Water-like anomalies for core-softened models of fluids: One dimension
We use a one-dimensional (1d) core-softened potential to develop a physical
picture for some of the anomalies present in liquid water. The core-softened
potential mimics the effect of hydrogen bonding. The interest in the 1d system
stems from the facts that closed-form results are possible and that the
qualitative behavior in 1d is reproduced in the liquid phase for higher
dimensions. We discuss the relation between the shape of the potential and the
density anomaly, and we study the entropy anomaly resulting from the density
anomaly. We find that certain forms of the two-step square well potential lead
to the existence at T=0 of a low-density phase favored at low pressures and of
a high-density phase favored at high pressures, and to the appearance of a
point at a positive pressure, which is the analog of the T=0 ``critical
point'' in the Ising model. The existence of point leads to anomalous
behavior of the isothermal compressibility and the isobaric specific heat
.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure
Homogeneous nucleation of a non-critical phase near a continuous phase transition
Homogeneous nucleation of a new phase near a second, continuous, transition,
is considered. The continuous transition is in the metastable region associated
with the first-order phase transition, one of whose coexisting phases is
nucleating. Mean-field calculations show that as the continuous transition is
approached, the size of the nucleus varies as the response function of the
order parameter of the continuous transition. This response function diverges
at the continuous transition, as does the temperature derivative of the free
energy barrier to nucleation. This rapid drop of the barrier as the continuous
transition is approached means that the continuous transition acts to reduce
the barrier to nucleation at the first-order transition. This may be useful in
the crystallisation of globular proteins.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur
Evidence for "fragile" glass-forming behavior in the relaxation of Coulomb frustrated three-dimensional systems
We show by means of a Monte Carlo simulation study that three-dimensional
models with long-range frustration display the generic phenomena seen in
fragile glassforming liquids. Due to their properties (absence of quenched
disorder, physical motivation in terms of structural frustration, and tunable
fragility), these systems appear as promising minimal theoretical models for
describing the glass transition of supercooled liquids.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Simple Fluids with Complex Phase Behavior
We find that a system of particles interacting through a simple isotropic
potential with a softened core is able to exhibit a rich phase behavior
including: a liquid-liquid phase transition in the supercooled phase, as has
been suggested for water; a gas-liquid-liquid triple point; a freezing line
with anomalous reentrant behavior. The essential ingredient leading to these
features resides in that the potential investigated gives origin to two
effective core radii.Comment: 7 pages including 3 eps figures + 1 jpeg figur
Space-time Phase Transitions in Driven Kinetically Constrained Lattice Models
Kinetically constrained models (KCMs) have been used to study and understand
the origin of glassy dynamics. Despite having trivial thermodynamic properties,
their dynamics slows down dramatically at low temperatures while displaying
dynamical heterogeneity as seen in glass forming supercooled liquids. This
dynamics has its origin in an ergodic-nonergodic first-order phase transition
between phases of distinct dynamical "activity". This is a "space-time"
transition as it corresponds to a singular change in ensembles of trajectories
of the dynamics rather than ensembles of configurations. Here we extend these
ideas to driven glassy systems by considering KCMs driven into non-equilibrium
steady states through non-conservative forces. By classifying trajectories
through their entropy production we prove that driven KCMs also display an
analogous first-order space-time transition between dynamical phases of finite
and vanishing entropy production. We also discuss how trajectories with rare
values of entropy production can be realized as typical trajectories of a
mapped system with modified forces
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