Related papers: Nucleation in sheared granular matter
In the study of crystal nucleation via computer simulations, hard spheres are arguably the most extensively explored model system. Nonetheless, even in this simple model system, the complex thermodynamics of crystal nuclei can sometimes…
We consider the nucleation process associated with capillary condensation of a vapor in a hydrophobic cylindrical pore (capillary evaporation). The liquid-vapor transition is described within the framework of a simple lattice model. The…
This thesis can be divided into two independent parts. In the first part of this thesis, we focus on studying the kinetic pathways of nucleation in colloidal systems. In Chapter 2, we briefly introduce the relevant theory of nucleation,…
We investigate the thermodynamical content of a cellular model which describes nuclear fragmentation as a process taking place in an excited disordered system. The model which reproduces very well the size distribution of fragments does not…
Structural organization and correlations are studied in very large packings of equally sized acrylic spheres, reconstructed in three-dimensions by means of X-ray computed tomography. A novel technique, devised to analyze correlations among…
Nucleation, commonly associated with discontinuous transformations between metastable and stable phases, is crucial in fields as diverse as atmospheric science and nanoscale electronics. Traditionally, it is considered a microscopic process…
Nuclear pores have an approximately uniform distribution in the nuclear envelope of most living cells. Hence, the morphology of the nuclear envelope is a spherical stomatocyte with a high genus. We have investigated the morphology of…
Geometrical arguments suggest that pore-mediated nucleation happens in general in a two-step fashion, the first step being nucleation within the pore, the second being nucleation from the filled pore into solution [Page & Sear, Phys. Rev.…
We investigate the ordering properties of vertically-vibrated monolayers of granular cylinders in a circular container at high packing fraction. In line with previous works by other groups, we identify liquid-crystalline ordering behaviour…
Dense packing of particles has provided important models to study the structure of matter in various systems such as liquid, glassy and crystalline phase, etc. The simplest sphere packing models are able to represent and capture salient…
We study the packing fraction of clusters in free-falling streams of spherical and irregularly shaped particles using flash X-ray radiography. The estimated packing fraction of clusters is low enough to correspond to coordination numbers…
First order phase transitions in general proceed via nucleation of bubbles. A theoretical basis for the calculation of the nucleation rate is given by the homogeneous nucleation theory of Langer and its field theoretical version of Callan…
By means of classical density functional theory and its dynamical extension, we consider a colloidal fluid with spherically-symmetric competing interactions, which are well known to exhibit a rich bulk phase behavior. This includes complex…
Ice nucleation is a process of great relevance in physics, chemistry, technology and environmental sciences, much theoretical and experimental efforts have been devoted to its understanding, but still it remains a topic of intense research.…
Cold atomic gases offer the prospect of simulating the physics of the very early universe in the laboratory. In the condensate phase, the gas is described by a field theory with key features of high energy particle theory. This paper…
We demonstrate that nascent polymer crystals (i.e., nuclei) are anisotropic entities, with neither spherical nor cylindrical geometry, in contrast to previous assumptions. In fact, cylindrical, spherical, and other high symmetry geometries…
Crystal growth and crystal coalescence processes in supercooled systems strongly depend on the concentration of crystallization centers. We perform atomistic dynamics simulations of the crystallization process in the ultrathin metallic film…
Despite its fundamental and technological importance, a microscopic understanding of the crystallization process is still elusive. By computer simulations of the hard-sphere model we reveal the mechanism by which thermal fluctuations drive…
A full understanding of polycrystalline materials requires studying the process of nucleation, a thermally activated phase transition that typically occurs at atomistic scales. The numerical modeling of this process is problematic for…
Crystallization from a supercooled liquid initially proceeds via the formation of a small solid embryo (nucleus), which requires surmounting an activation barrier. This phenomenon is most easily studied by numerical simulation, using…