Energy landscape of a lennard-jones liquid: statistics of stationary points.
Molecular dynamics simulations are used to generate an ensemble of saddles of the potential energy of a Lennard-Jones liquid. Classifying all extrema by their potential energy u and number of unstable directions k, a well-defined relation k(u) is revealed. The degree of instability of typical stationary points vanishes at a threshold potential energy u(th), which lies above the energy of the lowest glassy minima of the system. The energies of the inherent states, as obtained by the Stillinger-Weber method, approach u(th) at a temperature close to the mode-coupling transition temperature T(c).
Broderix
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Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Gottingen, Bunsenstrasse 9, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany.
Bhattacharya
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Cavagna
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Zippelius
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A
Giardina
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