# Extended correlations in the critical superheated solid

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the existence of long-range energy correlations in a superheated Lennard-Jones crystal, revealing collective atomic behavior that precedes melting in metastable states.

## Contribution

It uncovers long-range potential energy correlations in a superheated solid, highlighting the role of vacancy-interstitial pairs in inducing effective long-range forces.

## Key findings

- Long-range energy correlations exist in superheated crystals.
- Vacancy-interstitial pairs promote cooperative atomic motion.
- Effective long-range forces extend beyond fourth neighbors.

## Abstract

Metastable states in first-order phase transitions reveal interesting behavior about a wide range of systems in statistical mechanics, including spin systems, cellular automata and condensed matter systems. These metastable states are often observed in a microcanonical setting, where they manifest long-range correlations due to collective effects. In this work we show the existence of long-range potential energy correlations between atoms in a microcanonical superheated Lennard-Jones crystal prior to homogeneous melting. Our results suggest that the cooperative motion made possible by the presence of vacancy-interstitial pairs above the melting temperature induces effective long-range interatomic forces even beyond the fourth neighboring layer.