Reentrant melting of the exp-6 fluid: the role of the repulsion softness

TL;DR

This study explores how varying the softness of the repulsive part of the exp-6 potential affects reentrant melting and density anomalies in a high-pressure particle system, revealing persistent anomalies at lower pressures.

Contribution

It demonstrates how changing the softness of the repulsive interaction influences reentrant melting and density anomalies in the exp-6 fluid.

Findings

Anomalous melting persists with increased repulsion softness.

Reentrant melting occurs at smaller pressures with softer repulsion.

Reducing the potential's downward concavity diminishes the reentrant melting region.

Abstract

We investigate the phase behaviour of a system of particles interacting through the exp-6 pair potential, a model interaction that is appropriate to describe effective interatomic forces under high compression. The soft-repulsive component of the potential is being varied so as to study the effect on reentrant melting and density anomaly. Upon increasing the repulsion softness, we find that the anomalous melting features persist and occur at smaller pressures. Moreover, if we reduce the range of downward concavity in the potential by extending the hard core at the expenses of the soft-repulsive shoulder, the reentrant part of the melting line reduces in extent so as it does the region of density anomaly.