Ginzburg-Landau theory of the liquid-solid interface and nucleation for hard spheres.
The Ginzburg-Landau free energy functional for hard spheres is constructed using the fundamental measure theory approach to density functional theory as a starting point. The functional is used to study the liquid-fcc solid planer interface and the properties of small solid clusters nucleating within a liquid. The surface tension for planer interfaces agrees well with simulation and it is found that the properties of the solid clusters are consistent with classical nucleation theory.
Lutsko
James F
JF
Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems, Université Libre de Bruxelles, CP 231, Blvd. du Triomphe, 1050 Brussels, Belgium. jlutsko@ulb.ac.be