Related papers: Regelation: why does ice melt under pressure?
Solidification as a first order phase transition is described in the Landau theory by the same equation as tricritical phenomena. Here, the solidification or melting temperature against pressure curve is modelled to end at a tricritical…
We explore the Casimir-Lifshitz free energy theory for surface freezing of methane gas hydrates near the freezing point of water. The theory enables us to explore different pathways, resulting in anomalous (stabilising) ice layers on…
Colloidal gels have unique mechanical and transport properties that stem from their bicontinous nature, in which a colloidal network is intertwined with a viscous solvent, and have found numerous applications in foods, cosmetics,…
Almost frictionless skating on ice relies on a thin layer of melted water insulating mechanically the blade of the skate from ice. Using the basic equations of fluid mechanics and Stefan law, we derive a set of two coupled equations for the…
A concentration-saturated helium mixture at the melting pressure consists of two liquid phases and one or two solid phases. The equilibrium system is univariant, whose properties depend uniquely on temperature. Four coexisting phases can…
Solid O2 has been proposed as a possible reservoir for oxygen in dense clouds through freeze-out processes. The aim of this work is to characterize quantitatively the physical processes that are involved in the desorption kinetics of CO-O2…
Wetting transitions have been predicted and observed to occur for various combinations of fluids and surfaces. This paper describes the origin of such transitions, for liquid films on solid surfaces, in terms of the gas-surface interaction…
We study cold denaturation of proteins at high pressures. Using multicanonical Monte Carlo simulations of a model protein in a water bath, we investigate the effect of water density fluctuations on protein stability. We find that above the…
Gravity and thermal energy are universal phenomena which compete over the stabilization of astrophysical systems. The former induces an inward pressure driving collapse and the latter a stabilizing outward pressure generated by random…
The increase of aqueous solubility of nonpolar compounds upon cooling and the cold denaturation of proteins are established experimental facts. Both phenomena have been hypothesized to be related to restructuring of the hydrogen bond…
Mode coupling theory (MCT) has been successful in explaining the observed sequence of time relaxations in dense fluids. Previous expositions of this theory showing this sequence have required the existence of an ideal glass transition…
The swelling equilibrium of Olympic gels, which are composed of entangled cyclic polymers, is studied by Monte Carlo Simulations. In contrast to chemically crosslinked polymer networks, we observe that Olympic gels made of chains with a…
In this work we measured Surface Energy and Freezing Temperature of supercooled water droplets in air. We find that freezing of water droplets is triggered at the water-air interface and that freezing progresses faster on the surface than…
When a gel absorbs solvent from surrounding, stress field is created in the gel, and this causes complex dynamics of the swelling behavior. Here we study this effect for disk-shaped gel by rigorously solving the diffusio-mechanical coupling…
Based on ab initio calculations and metadynamics simulations, we predict that 2H-MoS$_2$, a layered insulator, will metallize under pressures in excess of 20-30 GPa. In the same pressure range, simulations and enthalpy optimization predict…
We study the possibility that, after inflation, the inflaton reaches thermal equilibrium with the Standard Model thermal bath and eventually freezes-out in the non-relativistic regime. When the inflaton decay is the sole source of…
Introduction of the principles of the asymmetrical, short-range O:H-O coupled oscillater pair and the basic rule for water ice, which reconciles the structure and anomalies of water ice.
The light scattered by cold atoms induces mutual optical forces between them, which can lead to bound states. In addition to the trapping potential, this light-induced interaction generates a velocity-dependent force which damps or…
When He gas is injected from room temperature into boiling liquid N$_{2}$, boiling is suppressed, leaving liquid surface flat like a mirror. Although the qualitative explanation for this phenomenon is known [Minkoff G J \textit{et al}.…
We discuss the nature of the slow relaxation processes in glass-forming eutectic melts right after melting. For specific, we focus on the binary metallic melt Al--Y, which in addition to the slow relaxation shows unusual non-monotonic…