Dynamical Study of Polydisperse Hard-Sphere System

TL;DR

This study investigates how polydispersity affects the fluid-crystal and glass transitions in elastic sphere systems, revealing that at critical polydispersity, these states become indistinguishable, indicating a marginal glass state.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the relationship between crystal, fluid, and glass states in polydisperse systems using molecular dynamics simulations.

Findings

The critical polydispersity marks the end of the crystal-fluid transition line.

At critical polydispersity, crystal and fluid states become indistinguishable.

The system reaches a marginal glass state at high polydispersity.

Abstract

We study the interplay between the fluid-crystal transition and the glass transition of elastic sphere system with polydispersity using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. It is found that the end point of the crystal-fluid transition line, which corresponds to the critical polydispersity above which the crystal state is unstable, is on the glass transition line. This means that crystal and fluid states at the melting point becomes less distinguishable as polydispersity increases and finally they become identical state, i.e., marginal glass state, at critical polydispersity.