Hard-sphere behavior in the dynamics of all monoatomic liquids at the de Gennes minimum

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the de Gennes minimum in scattering spectra of mono-atomic liquids can be described by a hard-sphere model related to the liquid's density, with deviations explained by crystal structure differences.

Contribution

It introduces a parameter-free hard-sphere expression for the de Gennes minimum position applicable to close-packed mono-atomic liquids, linking microscopic structure to scattering features.

Findings

The de Gennes minimum position follows a hard-sphere relation for close-packed liquids.

Metals with non-close-packed structures deviate from this relation.

The expression aids in selecting liquids for inelastic scattering studies.

Abstract

We show that the position of the de Gennes minimum in scattering spectra, where the dynamics of liquids shows down, is given by a hard-sphere expression for a range of mono-atomic liquids that crystallize in a close packed structure. This expression relates the position of the minimum to the number density of the liquid, without any adjustable or unknown parameters. We argue that this implies that a liquid can be viewed as a close packed structure of the cages that represent the confinement of atoms by their neighbors. We further show that some metals deviate from this expression, namely those metals that crystallize in a structure that is not close packed. Our expression should prove very useful in identifying what liquids to study in inelastic scattering experiments given that deviations from normal fluid behavior can already be predicted based on the peak position of the static structure factor.