Abstract
The freezing mechanism suggested for a fluid composed of hard disks [Huerta et al., Phys. Rev. E, 2006, 74, 061106] is used here to probe the fluid-to-solid transition in a hard-dumbbell fluid composed of overlapping hard disks with a variable length between disk centers. Analyzing the trends in the shape of second maximum of the radial distribution function of the planar hard-dumbbell fluid it has been found that the type of transition could be sensitive to the length of hard-dumbbell molecules. From the ${NpT}$ Monte Carlo simulations data we show that if a hard-dumbbell length does not exceed 15% of the disk diameter, the fluid-to-solid transition scenario follows the case of a hard-disk fluid, i.e., the isotropic hard-dumbbell fluid experiences freezing. However, for a hard-dumbbell length larger than 15% of disk diameter, there is evidence that fluid-to-solid transition may change to continuous transition, i.e., such an isotropic hard-dumbbell fluid will avoid freezing.
Highlights
Since Alder and Wainwright [1] in 1962 showed by molecular dynamics simulations that two-dimensional (2D) fluid of circular hard-core species — hard disks — can freeze, a number of papers have been published studying the properties and physics behind such a phenomenon
Following the observation by Truskett et al [11], the fluid composed of planar hard disks exhibits a structural precursor to freezing transition that manifests itself as a shoulder in the second maximum of the disk-disk radial distribution function
We turned our attention to the case of anisotropy parameter values range 0 d 0.28 that was indicated in that theoretical analysis [8] as a unique one where the isotropic fluid phase freezes by coexisting with the plastic crystal solid
Summary
Since Alder and Wainwright [1] in 1962 showed by molecular dynamics simulations that two-dimensional (2D) fluid of circular hard-core species — hard disks — can freeze, a number of papers have been published studying the properties and physics behind such a phenomenon. Species of the hard-disk model (e.g., atoms, molecules or particles) do not experience any other interaction except being prohibited from mutual overlap This apparent simplicity as well as a desire to understand the mechanism that enables the system with no thermal activation to become unstable, undergoing a freezing transition, are the main driving forces of the interest to this model fluid. The most recent advances in understanding the physics behind the freezing transition in a hard-disk fluid concern the large scale computer simulation data reported by Zollweg and Chester [2], Mak [3] and Bernard and Krauth [4]. According to these simulation studies, the hard-disk fluid becomes solid in two steps: (i) by means of the first-order type of transition from an isotropic fluid phase to a hexatic phase and (ii) continuously from a hexatic phase to a solid
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