Singularity at the Point of Transition from Equilibrium to Metastable States of a Metallic Melt

Abstract

Equilibrium and metastable states of a liquid are studied near the liquid-crystal phase transition point in a metallic melt using a time-dependent four-point correlation function. This function was proposed earlier for revealing the collective atomic motion in equilibrium liquids. The characteristic changes in the behavior of liquid when it passes to the region of metastability are found. At the quantitative level, such changes manifest themselves in the specific features of the four-point correlation function in the region of crossover from the equilibrium to metastable state arising on isochoric cooling. As specific examples, the embedded atom models for copper and nickel are considered using the method of molecular dynamics.