Related papers: Structural properties of dense hard sphere packing…
We numerically study structural properties of mechanically stable packings of hard spheres (HS), in a wide range of packing fractions $0.53 \le \phi \le 0.72$. Detailed structural information is obtained from the analysis of orientational…
Obtaining general relations between macroscopic properties of random assemblies, such as density, and the microscopic properties of their constituent particles, such as shape, is a foundational challenge in the study of amorphous materials.…
Local bond order parameters based on spherical harmonics, also known as Steinhardt order parameters, are often used to determine crystal structures in molecular simulations. Here we propose a modification of this method in which the complex…
The inherent structure landscape for a system of hard spheres confined to a hard cylindrical channel, such that spheres can only contact their first and second neighbours, is studied using an analytical model that extends previous results…
The channel size distribution in hard sphere systems, based on the local neighbor correlation of four particle positions, is investigated for all volume fractions up to jamming. For each particle, all three particle combinations of…
Due to the lack of long-range order, it remains challenging to characterize the structure of disordered solids and understand the nature of the glass transition. Here we propose a new structural order parameter by taking into account…
Complex crystal structures are composed of multiple local environments, and how this type of order emerges spontaneously during crystal growth has yet to be fully understood. We study crystal growth across various structures and along…
We study numerically the crystallization of a hard-sphere mixture with 8\% polydispersity. Although often used as a model glass former, for small system sizes we observe crystallization in molecular dynamics simulations. This opens the…
We use numerical simulations to study the crystallization of monodisperse systems of hard aspherical particles. We find that particle shape and crystallizability can be easily related to each other when particles are characterized in terms…
We present a method for discovering dense packings of general convex hard particles and apply it to study the dense packing behavior of a one-parameter family of particles with tetrahedral symmetry representing a deformation of the ideal…
Questions surrounding the spatial disposition of particles in various condensed-matter systems continue to pose many theoretical challenges. This paper explores the geometric availability of amorphous many-particle configurations that…
The phase behavior of helical packings of thermoresponsive microspheres inside glass capillaries is studied as a function of volume fraction. Stable packings with long-range orientational order appear to evolve abruptly to disordered states…
Hard spheres are ubiquitous in condensed matter: they have been used as models for liquids, crystals, colloidal systems, granular systems, and powders. Packings of hard spheres are of even wider interest, as they are related to important…
Studies of random close packing of spheres have advanced our knowledge about the structure of systems such as liquids, glasses, emulsions, granular media, and amorphous solids. When these systems are confined their structural properties…
A hybrid helical structure of equal-sized hard spheres in cylindrical confinement was discovered as a 'by-product' of the recently developed sequential deposition approach [Physical Review E 84, 050302(R) (2011)] for constructing the…
We investigate ordering properties of two-dimensional granular materials using several shapes created by welding ball bearings together. Ordered domains form much more easily in two than in three dimensions, even when configurations lack…
Order parameters based on spherical harmonics and Fourier coefficients already play a significant role in condensed matter research in the context of systems of spherical or point particles. Here, we extend these types of order parameter to…
We develop a model to describe the properties of random assemblies of polydisperse hard spheres. We show that the key features to describe the system are (i) the dependence between the free volume of a sphere and the various coordination…
A comprehensive framework of characterizing complex self-assembled structures with a set of orientational order parameters is presented. It is especially relevant in the context of using anisotropic building blocks with various symmetries.…
Bead packs of up to 150,000 mono-sized spheres with packing densities ranging from 0.58 to 0.64 have been studied by means of X-ray Computed Tomography. These studies represent the largest and the most accurate description of the structure…