On the existence of a structural instability in sub-critical crystalline fluctuations in asupercooled liquid

Abstract

The square gradient free energy functional is used to describe the distribution ofsub-critical crystalline fluctuations in a supercooled liquid. We show that for anysupercooling there exists a cluster radius of 3–4 particle diameters below which thecrystalline order is no longer stable. We explore the consequences of this observation.