Dimensional transitions in small Yukawa clusters

Abstract

We provide a detailed analysis of structural transitions leading to rapid changes in the dimensionality of small Yukawa clusters. These transformations are induced by variations in the shape of confinement as well as the screening strength. We show that even in the most primitive systems composed of only a few strongly interacting particles, the order parameter exhibits a power-law behavior in the vicinity of the critical point of the continuous transition. The critical exponent γ = 1/2 is found to be universal in all studied cases, which is consistent with the general theory of continuous phase transitions.