Comment on `Formation of a Dodecagonal Quasicrystalline Phase in a Simple Monatomic Liquid'

TL;DR

This paper critiques a previous simulation claiming to produce a dodecagonal quasicrystal, providing evidence that the actual ground state is a simple bcc crystal, thus challenging the original interpretation.

Contribution

It offers a critical analysis showing that the purported quasicrystal is not the ground state but an ordinary bcc crystal under the same potential.

Findings

Ground state is a bcc crystal, not a quasicrystal.

Original simulation results are reinterpreted as a bcc structure.

Challenges the stability of the claimed quasicrystalline phase.

Abstract

In a recent paper M. Dzugutov, Phys. Rev. Lett. 70 2924 (1993), describes a molecular dynamics cooling simulation where he obtained a large monatomic dodecagonal quasicrystal from a melt. The structure was stabilized by a special potential [Phys. Rev. A46 R2984 (1992)] designed to prevent the nucleation of simple dense crystal structures. In this comment we will give evidence that the ground state structure for Dzugutov's potential is an ordinary bcc crystal.