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 and the glass becomes the equilibrium phase beyond a "terminal" value of the polydispersity. A crystal-to-glass transition is also observed as the density is increased at high polydispersity. The phase diagram obtained in our study is qualitatively similar to that of hard spheres in a quenched random potential.
Chaudhuri
Pinaki
P
Centre for Condensed Matter Theory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.
Karmakar
Smarajit
S
Dasgupta
Chandan
C
Krishnamurthy
H R
HR
Sood
A K
AK
D000465:Algorithms; D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry*; D003460:Crystallization; D004735:Energy Transfer; D049329:Nanostructures; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry
D003102:Colloids; D011137:Polystyrenes