Inverse melting in lattice-gas models.

Inverse melting is the phenomenon, observed in both helium isotopes, by which a crystal melts when cooled at constant pressure. I investigate discrete-space analogs of inverse melting by means of two instances of a triangular-lattice-gas system endowed with a soft-core repulsion and a short-ranged attraction. To reconstruct the phase diagram, I use both transfer-matrix and Monte Carlo methods, as well as low-temperature series expansions. In one case, a phase behavior reminiscent of helium emerges, with a loose-packed phase (which is solidlike for low temperatures and liquidlike for high temperatures) extending down to zero temperature for low pressures and the possibility of melting the close-packed solid by isobaric cooling. At variance with previous model studies of inverse melting, the driving mechanism of the present phenomenon is mainly geometrical, related to the larger free-energy cost of a "vacancy" in the loose-packed solid than in the close-packed one.