title: Structural phase transitions and unusual melting behavior in a classical two-dimensional Coulomb bound cluster.
abstract: The melting properties of a cluster with N equally charged particles confined by a Coulomb potential are studied. The system exhibits a structural phase transition before it melts. The melting process is not dominated by the usual thermal hops between stable states. We also show that the symmetry of the ground state configuration is a dominant factor in determining the melting temperature and that more confined particles in the cluster do not necessarily have a higher melting temperature.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Caixa Postal 6030, Campus do Pici, 60455-760 Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. wandemberg@fisica.ufc.br
authors.forename: W P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Partoens
authors.forename: F M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Peeters
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Farias