Mean-field model of melting in superheated crystals based on a single experimentally measurable order parameter.

ABSTRACT: Melting is one of the most studied phase transitions important for atomic, molecular, colloidal, and protein systems. However, there is currently no microscopic experimentally accessible criteria that can be used to reliably track a system evolution across the transition, while providing insights into melting nucleation and melting front evolution. To address this, we developed a theoretical mean-field framework with the normalised mean-square displacement between particles in neighbouring Voronoi cells serving as the local order parameter, measurable experimentally. We tested the framework in a number of colloidal and in silico particle-resolved experiments against systems with significantly different (Brownian and Newtonian) dynamic regimes and found that it provides excellent descriptio

SUBMITTER: Kryuchkov NP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8429456 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature