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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
Nonaffine heterogeneities and droplet fluctuations in an equilibrium crystalline solid
Tamoghna Das1, Surajit Sengupta, Madan Rao
1Advanced Materials Research Unit, S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700091, India. tamoghna@bose.res.in
Abstract:
We show, using molecular-dynamics simulations, that a two-dimensional Lennard-Jones solid exhibits droplet fluctuations characterized by nonaffine deviations from local crystallinity. The fraction of particles in these droplets increases as the mean density of the solid decreases and approaches ≈20% of the total number in the vicinity of the fluid-solid phase boundary. We monitor the geometry, local equation of state, density correlations, and Van Hove functions of these droplets. We provide evidence that these nonaffine heterogeneities should be interpreted as being droplet fluctuations from nearby metastable minima. The local excess pressure of the droplets plotted against the local number density shows a van der Waal loop with distinct branches corresponding to fluidlike compact and stringlike glassy droplets. The distinction between fluidlike and glassy droplets disappears above a well-defined temperature.
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