Novel Structural Motifs in Clusters of Dipolar Spheres: Knots, Links and Coils

TL;DR

This paper explores the diverse global minimum structures of dipolar sphere clusters, revealing complex topologies like knots and links that depend on cluster size and dipole strength.

Contribution

It introduces the first systematic analysis of potential energy minima for Stockmayer clusters, highlighting the emergence of topologically complex structures.

Findings

Identification of various knot and link topologies in cluster structures

Dependence of structure types on cluster size and dipole strength

Most stable structures exhibit a limited set of topologies

Abstract

We present the structures of putative global potential energy minima for clusters bound by the Stockmayer (Lennard-Jones plus point dipole) potential. A rich variety of structures is revealed as the cluster size and dipole strength are varied. Most remarkable are groups of closed-loop structures with the topology of knots and links. Despite the large number of possibilities, energetically optimal structures exhibit only a few such topologies.