English

Ultrastable jammed sphere packings with a wide range of particle dispersities

Soft Condensed Matter 2025-08-14 v2

Abstract

We show that for a standard continuously-polydisperse model with particle-diameter distribution P(σ)σ3P(\sigma) \propto \sigma^{-3} and polydispersity index Δ\Delta, employing a combination of standard SWAP moves and transient degree of freedom (TDOF) moves during a Lubachevsky-Stillinger-like particle-growth process dramatically increases the generated packings' jamming densities ϕJ(Δ)\phi_{\rm J}(\Delta) and coordination numbers ZJ(Δ)Z_{\rm J}(\Delta), for a wide range of Δ\Delta. The fractional increase in ϕJ(Δ)\phi_{\rm J}(\Delta) obtained by employing these moves first increases rapidly with Δ\Delta, then plateaus at 67%6-7\% over the range 0.10Δ500.10 \lesssim \Delta \leq 50; the obtained ϕJ\phi_{\rm J} are as high as 0.7470.747 (for Δ=0.50\Delta = 0.50). These density increases are achieved without producing clearly-noticeable crystallization or increased fractionation, despite the fact that the packings are quite hyperstatic for all Δ>0\Delta > 0. SWAP and TDOF moves also reduce packings' rattler populations by as much as 99% and increase their bulk moduli by as much as 80%.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.16521,
  title  = {Ultrastable jammed sphere packings with a wide range of particle dispersities},
  author = {Robert S. Hoy},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.16521},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Extensively revised in response to reviewer comments