2004/09/30 by E. Zaccarelli, Emanuela Zaccarelli, S. V. Buldyrev +10 · 1 citation
Chemistry · Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Atomic packing factor #Chemistry #Colloid #Colloidal particle #Condensed matter physics #Constraint (computer-aided design) #Material Dynamics and Properties #Materials science #Mathematics #Nuclear magnetic resonance #Phase (matter) #Physical chemistry #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Range (aeronautics) #Square (algebra) #Statistical physics #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.94.218301
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 218301 (2005) · 4 pages, 5 figures, final version, 1 fig. changed
openalex publication_date 2005/06/02 · arxiv created 2005/06/03 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report a numerical study, covering a wide range of packing fraction Phi and temperature T, for a system of particles interacting via a square well potential supplemented by an additional constraint on the maximum number n(max) of bonded interactions. We show that, when n(max)<6, the liquid-gas coexistence region shrinks, giving access to regions of low Phi where dynamics can be followed down to low T without an intervening phase separation. We characterize these arrested states at low densities (gel states) in terms of structure and dynamical slowing down, pointing out features which are very different from the standard glassy states observed at high Phi values.