2011/04/29 by Robert D. Batten, Frank H. Stillinger, Salvatore Torquato · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Computer science #Ground state #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Material Dynamics and Properties #Materials science #Mathematical analysis #Mathematics #Maxima and minima #Metric (unit) #Particle (ecology) #Particle system #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Range (aeronautics) #Space (punctuation) #Statistical physics #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.3615527
36 pages, 16 figures
arxiv created 2011/04/29 · openalex publication_date 2011/08/02 · arxiv updated 2015/05/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We generate inherent structures, local potential-energy minima, of the "k-space overlap potential" in two-dimensional many-particle systems using a cooling and quenching simulation technique. The ground states associated with the k-space overlap potential are stealthy (i.e., completely suppress single scattering of radiation for a range of wavelengths) and hyperuniform (i.e., infinite wavelength density fluctuations vanish). However, we show via quantitative metrics that the inherent structures exhibit a range of stealthiness and hyperuniformity depending on the fraction of degrees of freedom χ that are constrained. Inherent structures in two dimensions typically contain five-particle rings, wavy grain boundaries, and vacancy-interstitial defects. The structural and thermodynamic properties of the inherent structures are relatively insensitive to the temperature from which they are sampled, signifying that the energy landscape is relatively flat along the directions sampled, with wide shallow local minima and devoid of deep wells. Using the nudged-elastic-band algorithm, we construct paths from ground-state configurations to inherent structures and identify the transition points between them. In addition, we use point patterns generated from a random sequential addition (RSA) of hard disks, which are nearly stealthy, and examine the particle rearrangements necessary to make the configurations absolutely stealthy. We introduce a configurational proximity metric to show that only small local, but collective, particle rearrangements are needed to drive initial RSA configurations to stealthy disordered ground states. These results lead to a more complete understanding of the unusual behaviors exhibited by the family of "collective-coordinate" potentials to which the k-space overlap potential belongs.