Related papers: Changing shapes in the nanoworld
We develop a theory in order to describe the effect of relaxation in a condensed medium upon the quantum decay of a metastable liquid near the spinodal at low temperatures. We find that both the regime and the rate of quantum nucleation…
It is now possible to model thermal relaxation of neutron stars after bouts of accretion during which the star is heated out of equilibrium by nuclear reactions in its crust. Major uncertainties in these models can be encapsulated in modest…
Spatial confinement in nanoporous media affects the structure, thermodynamics and mobility of molecular soft matter often markedly. This article reviews thermodynamic equilibrium phenomena, such as physisorption, capillary condensation,…
We present a simple unifying model for crystallization and melting temperatures by showing that homogeneous nucleation and phase transformations driven by thickening of pre-existing surface layers are limiting conditions of the more general…
We carry out molecular dynamics (MD) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations to characterize nucleation in liquid clusters of 600 Lennard-Jones particles over a broad range of temperatures. We use the formalism of mean first-passage times to…
We numerically elucidate the microscopic mechanisms controlling the relaxation dynamics of a three-dimensional lattice glass model that has static properties compatible with the approach to a random first-order transition. At low…
The nonexponential relaxation ocurring in complex dynamics manifested in a wide variety of systems is analyzed through a simple model of diffusion in phase space. It is found that the inability of the system to find its equilibrium state in…
Fluid phase equilibria involving nano-dispersed phases, where at least one of the coexisting phases is confined to a small volume, are investigated by molecular dynamics simulation. Complementing previous studies on nanoscopic droplets,…
Growth of nanoclusters and nanopillars is considered in a model of surface deposition of building blocks (atoms) diffusionally transported from solution to the forming surface structure. Processes of surface restructuring are also accounted…
This paper investigates the size effect on the coalescence process of contacting nanoparticles. It is revealed by molecular dynamics that the nanometer-sized surface curvature coupled with the effective melting temperature exhibits a strong…
We investigate the relaxation mechanism of a supercooled tetrahedral liquid at its limit of stability using isothermal isobaric ($NPT$) Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. In similarity with systems which are far from equilibrium but near the…
We focus our attention on Monte Carlo simulations of crystallization, which is one of the most important processes occurring in nature and technology of materials. Special attention is paid to the crystallization shrinkage and its…
The quantitative understanding of membranes is still rooted in work performed in the 1970s by Helfrich and others, concerning amphiphilic bilayers. However, most biological membranes contain a wide variety of nonamphiphilic molecules too.…
Extensive Monte Carlo folding simulations for four proteins of various structural classes are carried out, using a single atomistic potential. In all cases, collapse occurs at a very early stage, and proteins fold into their native-like…
Classical theories of crystal nucleation and growth from the liquid assume activated processes that are interface limited, with the atoms individually joining the growing interface by jumps that occur at a rate that is determined by the…
The morphology transition from the thermodynamically favorable to the unfavorable phase during growth of free-standing copper nanoclusters is studied by molecular dynamics simulations. We give a detailed description of the kinetics and…
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 use molecular simulation to calculate the nucleation free energy barrier for the freezing of a 456 atom gold cluster over a range of temperatures. The results show that the embryo of the solid cluster grows at the vapor-surface interface…
We study, by means of computer simulations, the crystal-melt interface of three different systems: hard-spheres, Lennard Jones and the TIP4P/2005 water model. In particular, we focus on the dynamics of surface waves. We observe that the…
The jumping-droplet condensation, namely the out-of-plane jumping of condensed droplets upon coalescence, has been a promising technical innovation in the fields of energy harvesting, droplet manipulation, thermal management, etc., yet is…