Related papers: Crystal nucleation rates in one-component Yukawa s…
We investigate the crystallization rate of a one-component plasma (OCP) in the context of classical nucleation theory. From our derivation of the free energy of an arbitrary distribution of solid clusters embedded in a liquid phase, we…
While uniform temperature has no effect on equilibrium properties of hard-core systems, its gradient might substantially change their behaviour. In particular, in hard-disk system subject to temperature difference $\Delta T$ disks are…
The interplay between crystal nucleation and the structure of the metastable fluid has been a topic of significant debate over recent years. In particular, it has been suggested that even in simple model systems such as hard or charged…
We present an experiment on crystallization of packings of macroscopic granular spheres. This system is often considered to be a model for thermally driven atomic or colloidal systems. Cyclically shearing a packing of frictional spheres, we…
Using images from the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys, we measure the rate of cooling of white dwarfs in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae and compare it to modelled cooling curves. We examine the effects of the outer…
Accurate models of cooling white dwarfs must treat the energy released as their cores crystallize. This phase transition slows the cooling by releasing latent heat and also gravitational energy, which results from phase separation: liquid C…
We report a new mechanism for nucleation in a monolayer of hexagonally packed monodisperse droplet arrays. Upon cooling, we observe solidified droplets to nucleate their supercooled neighbors giving rise to an autocatalytic-like mechanism…
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…
Despite numerous efforts from numerical approaches to complement experimental measurements, several fundamental challenges have still hindered one's ability to truly provide an atomistic picture of the nucleation process in nanocrystals.…
Below the melting temperature $T_m$ crystals are the stable phase of typical elemental or molecular systems. However, cooling down a liquid below $T_m$, crystallization is anything but inevitable. The liquid can be supercooled, eventually…
The 3-body crystallization diagrams of C/O/Ne ionic mixtures characteristic of white dwarf interiors are examined within the framework of the density-functional theory of freezing. The crystallization process is described more accurately…
Whether fast cooling processes occur or not is crucial for the thermal evolution of neutron stars. In particular, the threshold of the direct Urca process, which is one of the fast cooling processes, is determined by the interior proton…
A kinetic theory of homogeneous crystal nucleation in unary droplets is presented taking into account that a crystal nucleus can form not only in the volume-based mode (with all its facets within the droplet) but also in the…
In this paper we have explored computationally the solidification process of large nickel clusters. This process has the characteristic features of the first order phase transition occurring in a finite system. The focus of our research is…
Studies of nucleation generally focus on the properties of the critical cluster, but the presence of defects within the crystal lattice means that the population of nuclei necessarily evolve through a distribution of pre-critical clusters…
Finite size artifacts arise in molecular simulations of nucleation when critical nuclei are too close to their periodic images. A rigorous determination of what constitutes too close is, however, a major challenge. Recently, we devised…
We study polymorph selection in a model of charged colloids, with a focus on the higher-order structure prior to and during nucleation. Specifically, we carry out molecular dynamics simulations of a repulsive Yukawa system with a slightly…
The correlation buildup and the formation dynamics of the shell structure in a spherically confined one-component plasma are studied. Using Langevin dynamics simulations the relaxation processes and characteristic time scales and their…
Wet granular materials are characterized by a defined bond energy in their particle interaction such that breaking a bond implies an irreversible loss of a fixed amount of energy. Associated with the bond energy is a nonequilibrium…
A neutron star is born as a hot, lepton-rich protoneutron star (PNS) and cools via neutrino emission, eventually allowing heavy ions in the outer layers to crystallize into a solid crust. We develop a simple analytic estimate for the onset…