In small confined systems predictions for the melting point strongly depend on the choice of quantity and on the way it is computed, even yielding divergent and ambiguous results. We present a very simple quantity which allows to control these problems -- the variance of the block averaged interparticle distance fluctuations.
We investigate the characteristics of two dimensional melting in simple atomic systems via isobaric-isothermal ($NPT$) and isochoric-isothermal ($NVT$) molecular dynamics simulations with special focus on the effect of the range of the potential on the melting. We find that the system with interatomic potential of longer range clearly exhibits a region (in the $PT$ plane) of (thermodynamically) stable hexatic phase. On the other hand, the one with shorter range potential exhibits a first-order melting transition both in $NPT$ and $NVT$ ensembles. Melting of the system with intermediate range potential shows a hexatic-like feature near the melting transition in $NVT$ ensemble, but it undergoes an unstable hexatic-like phase during melting process in $NPT$ ensemble, which implies existence of a weakly first order transition. The overall features represent a crossover from a continuous melting transition in the cases of longer-ranged potential to a discontinuous (first order) one in the systems with shorter and intermediate ranged potential. We also calculate the Binder cumulants as well as the susceptibility of the bond-orientational order parameter.
We study the behavior of a moving wall in contact with a particle gas and subjected to an external force. We compare the fluctuations of the system observed in the microcanonical and canonical ensembles, at varying the number of particles. Static and dynamic correlations signal significant differences between the two ensembles. Furthermore, velocity-velocity correlations of the moving wall present a complex two-time relaxation which cannot be reproduced by a standard Langevin-like description. Quite remarkably, increasing the number of gas particles in an elongated geometry, we find a typical timescale, related to the interaction between the partitioning wall and the particles, which grows macroscopically.
We study the quantum melting of stripe phases in models with competing short range and long range interactions decaying with distance as $1/r^{sigma}$ in two space dimensions. At zero temperature we find a two step disordering of the stripe phases with the growth of quantum fluctuations. A quantum critical point separating a phase with long range positional order from a phase with long range orientational order is found when $sigma leq 4/3$, which includes the Coulomb interaction case $sigma=1$. For $sigma > 4/3$ the transition is first order, which includes the dipolar case $sigma=3$. Another quantum critical point separates the orientationally ordered (nematic) phase from a quantum disordered phase for any value of $sigma$. Critical exponents as a function of $sigma$ are computed at one loop order in an $epsilon$ expansion and, whenever available, compared with known results. For finite temperatures it is found that for $sigma geq 2$ orientational order decays algebraically with distance until a critical Kosterlitz-Thouless line. Nevertheless, for $sigma < 2$ it is found that long range orientational order can exist at finite temperatures until a critical line which terminates at the quantum critical point at $T=0$. The temperature dependence of the critical line near the quantum critical point is determined as a function of $sigma$.
This paper provides an introduction to some stochastic models of lattice gases out of equilibrium and a discussion of results of various kinds obtained in recent years. Although these models are different in their microscopic features, a unified picture is emerging at the macroscopic level, applicable, in our view, to real phenomena where diffusion is the dominating physical mechanism. We rely mainly on an approach developed by the authors based on the study of dynamical large fluctuations in stationary states of open systems. The outcome of this approach is a theory connecting the non equilibrium thermodynamics to the transport coefficients via a variational principle. This leads ultimately to a functional derivative equation of Hamilton-Jacobi type for the non equilibrium free energy in which local thermodynamic variables are the independent arguments. In the first part of the paper we give a detailed introduction to the microscopic dynamics considered, while the second part, devoted to the macroscopic properties, illustrates many consequences of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. In both parts several novelties are included.
We report on the onset of anti-resonant behaviour of mass transport systems driven by time-dependent forces. Anti-resonances arise from the coupling of a sufficiently high number of space-time modes of the force. The presence of forces having a wide space-time spectrum, a necessary condition for the formation of an anti-resonance, is typical of confined systems with uneven and deformable walls that induce entropic forces dependent on space and time. We have analyzed, in particular, the case of polymer chains confined in a flexible channel and shown how they can be sorted and trapped. The presence of resonance-antiresonance pairs found can be exploited to design protocols able to engineer optimal transport processes and to manipulate the dynamics of nano-objects.