On the Temperature Dependence of the Lifetime of Thermally Isolated Metastable Clusters

TL;DR

This study investigates how the lifetime of thermally isolated N8 cubane clusters varies with temperature, revealing deviations from classical Arrhenius behavior and validating the finite heat bath theory for atomic clusters.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates the failure of Arrhenius law for isolated clusters and confirms the applicability of finite heat bath theory through molecular dynamics simulations.

Findings

Lifetime dependence significantly deviates from Arrhenius law

Finite heat bath theory accurately describes cluster behavior

Molecular dynamics effectively models thermally isolated clusters

Abstract

The temperature dependence of the lifetime of the thermally isolated metastable N8 cubane up to its decay into N2 molecules has been calculated by the molecular dynamics method. It has been demonstrated that this dependence significantly deviates from the Arrhenius law. The applicability of the finite heat bath theory to the description of thermally isolated atomic clusters has been proved using statistical analysis of the results obtained.