The hard sphere ’’glass transition’’

Abstract

We investigate the existence of a glass transition for the systems of hard spheres studied in computer simulations of molecular dynamics. An empirical best-fit equation of state is established for the metastable (supercooled or supercompressed) hard sphere liquid. Configurational thermodynamic properties are calculated from this, and their significance is discussed. Evidence is presented to support the proposition that a system of hard spheres exhibits a phenomenon similar to a glass transition in which ’’glass formation’’ is purely a kinetic phenomenon. For hard spheres there is no underlying second order transition temperature T2. The effective ’’cooling rate’’ associated with these computer simulations of molecular dynamics is investigated and found to be enormous (∼1011 deg/sec). The implications of these results with respect to the configurational entropy theory of the glass transition are discussed.