Equilibrium Glassy Phase in a Polydisperse Hard-Sphere System

Equilibrium glassy phase in a polydisperse hard-sphere system.

The phase diagram of a polydisperse hard-sphere system is examined by numerical minimization of a discretized form of the Ramakrishnan-Yussouff free-energy functional. Crystalline and glassy local minima of the free energy are located and the phase diagram in the density-polydispersity plane is mapped out by comparing the free energies of different local minima. The crystalline phase disappears...

Equilibrium phase behavior of polydisperse hard spheres.

We calculate the phase behavior of hard spheres with size polydispersity, using accurate free energies for the fluid and solid phases. Cloud and shadow curves are found exactly by the moment free energy method, but we also compute the complete phase diagram, taking full account of fractionation. In contrast to earlier, simplified treatments we find no point of equal concentration between fluid ...

Continuous phase transition in polydisperse hard-sphere mixture

In a previous paper @Zhang et al., J. Chem. Phys. 110, 5318 ~1999!# we introduced a model for polydisperse hard-sphere mixtures that is able to adjust its particle size distribution. Here we give the explanation of the questions that arose in the previous description and present a consistent theory of the phase transition in this system, based on the Percus–Yevick equation of state. The transit...

Optimal packing of polydisperse hard-sphere fluids

We consider the effect of intermolecular interactions on the optimal size-distribution of N hard spheres that occupy a fixed total volume. When we minimize the free-energy of this system, within the Percus–Yevick approximation, we find that no solution exists beyond a quite low threshold (h'0.260). Monte Carlo simulations reveal that beyond this density, the size-distribution becomes bimodal. S...

Phase Transition for a Hard Sphere System