Continuum percolation of long lifespan clusters in a simple fluid

We present results on the percolation loci for chemical clusters and physical clusters of long lifespan. Chemical clusters are defined as sets of particles connected through particle-particle bonds that last for a given time tau. Physical clusters are sets of particles that remain close together at every instant for a given period of time tau. By using molecular dynamics simulations of a Lennard-Jones system we obtain the percolation loci at different values of tau as the lines in the temperature-density plane at which the system presents a spanning cluster in 50% of the configurations. We find that the percolation loci for chemical clusters shifts rapidly toward high densities as tau is increased. For moderate values of tau this line converges to the low-density branch of the liquid-solid coexistence curve. This implies that no stable chemical clusters can be found in the fluid phase. In contrast, the percolation loci for physical clusters tend to a limiting line, as tau tends to infinity, which is far from the liquid-solid transition line.