Related papers: The solidification of a disk-shaped crystal from a…
We investigate the finite-temperature phase diagram of polar molecules confined in a quasi-two-dimensional geometry by a harmonic potential along the polarization axis. We employ Quantum Monte Carlo simulations to explore the strongly…
We experimentally study the crystallization of a monolayer of vibrated discs with a built-in polar asymmetry, a model system of active liquids, and contrast it with that of vibrated isotropic discs. Increasing the packing fraction $\phi$,…
Snow crystals growing from water vapor occasionally exhibit morphologies with three-fold (trigonal) symmetry, even though the ice crystal lattice has a molecular structure with six-fold symmetry. In extreme cases, thin platelike snow…
We present the design of a general-purpose convection chamber that produces a stable environment for studying the growth of ice crystals from water vapor in the presence of a background gas. Crystals grow in free fall inside the chamber,…
During devitrification, pre-existing crystallites grow by adding particles to their surface via a process that is either thermally activated (diffusive mode) or happens without kinetic barriers (fast crystal growth mode). It is yet unclear…
We present a dynamical model of crystal growth, in which it is possible to reliably achieve asymmetric products, beginning from symmetric initial conditions and growing within an isotropic environment. The asymmetric growth is the result of…
Accretion discs at sub-pc distances around supermassive black holes are likely to cool rapidly enough that self-gravity results in fragmentation. Here, we use high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations of a simplified disc model to study how…
Iceberg meltwater is a critical freshwater flux from the cryosphere to the oceans. Global climate simulations therefore require simple and accurate parameterisations of iceberg melting. Iceberg shape is an important but often neglected…
The properties of planar ice crystals settling horizontally have been investigated using a vertically-pointing Doppler lidar. Strong specular reflections were observed from their oriented basal facets, identified by comparison with a second…
Despite the simplicity of the water molecule, the kinetics of ice nucleation under natural conditions can be complex. We investigated spontaneously grown ice nuclei using all-atom molecular dynamics simulations and found significant…
Polar mesospheric clouds provide clues to physicochemical processes in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. However, the heterogeneous nucleation and growth processes of water ice under polar mesospheric conditions are poorly understood,…
We studied the step dynamics during crystal sublimation and growth in the limit of fast surface diffusion and slow kinetics of atom attachment-detachment at the steps. For this limit we formulate a model free of the quasi-static…
The crystal growth of isotactic polystyrene (it-PS) is investigated in very thin, 11 nm thick films. The it-PS crystals grown in the thin films show quite different morphology from that in the bulk. With decreasing crystallization…
Context. Ice lines are suggested to play a significant role in grain growth and planetesimal formation in protoplanetary disks. Evaporation fronts directly influence the gas and ice abundances of volatile species in the disk and therefore…
Most analytic work to date on protostellar disks has focused on those in isolation from their environments. However, observations are now beginning to probe the earliest, most embedded phases of star formation, during which disks are…
Depositional ice growth is an important process for cirrus cloud evolution, but the physics of ice growth in atmospheric conditions is still poorly understood. One major challenge in constraining depositional ice growth models against…
Icy pebbles may play an important role in planet formation close to the water ice line of protoplanetary discs. There, dust coagulation is more efficient and re-condensation of vapor on pebbles may enhance their growth outside the ice line.…
The freezing mechanism, recently suggested for a monodisperse hard-disk fluid [Huerta et al., Phys. Rev. E, 2006, 74, 061106] is extended here to an equimolar binary hard-disk mixtures. We are showing that for diameter ratios, smaller than…
Cloud evolution for various metallicities is investigated by three-dimensional nested grid simulations, in which the initial ratio of rotational to gravitational energy of the host cloud \beta_0 (=10^-1 - 10^-6) and cloud metallicity Z (=0…
In supercooled liquids, vitrification generally suppresses crystallization. Yet some glasses can still crystallize despite the arrest of diffusive motion. This ill-understood process may limit the stability of glasses, but its microscopic…