Crystalline Ground States for Classical Particles

Abstract

Pair interactions whose Fourier transform is non-negative and vanishes above a wave number K(0) are shown to give rise to periodic and aperiodic infinite volume ground state configurations (GSCs) in any dimension d. A typical three-dimensional example is an interaction of asymptotic form cosK(0)r/r(4). The result is obtained for densities rho > or = rho(d), where rho(1) = K(0)/2(pi), rho(2) = (sq.rt(3)/8)(K(0)/pi)(2), and rho(3) = (1/8sq.rt(2)) x (K(0)/pi)(3). At rho(d) there is a unique periodic GSC which is the uniform chain, the triangular lattice, and the bcc lattice for d = 1,2,3, respectively. For rho > rho(d), the GSC is nonunique and the degeneracy is continuous: Any periodic configuration of density rho with all reciprocal lattice vectors not smaller than K(0), and any union of such configurations, is a GSC. The fcc lattice is a GSC only for rho > or = (1/6 sq.rt(3)) x (K(0)/pi)(3).