Crystal nucleation rates in one-component Yukawa systems

Area of Science:

• Condensed Matter Physics
• Astrophysical Sciences
• Computational Materials Science

Background:

• Understanding crystallization in supercooled liquids is crucial for various physical systems.
• The Yukawa system serves as a model for studying phase transitions in charged particle systems.
• Crystallization in white dwarf stars is a key process affecting their cooling evolution.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate homogeneous nucleation in supercooled Yukawa liquids using advanced simulation techniques.
• To quantitatively predict crystal nucleation rates and cluster size distributions.
• To apply these findings to astrophysical scenarios, specifically white dwarf star crystallization.

Main Methods:

• Employed both brute-force and improved seeded molecular dynamics simulations.
• Analyzed nucleation rates and cluster size distributions as a function of temperature and screening length.
• Modeled a typical white dwarf (WD) system to assess crystallization onset.

Main Results:

• Quantitative predictions for nucleation rates and cluster size distributions were obtained.
• Observed trends indicate faster nucleation with short-ranged potentials.
• At temperatures T>0.9T_{m}, classical homogeneous nucleation is too slow, but transient clusters are common.

Conclusions:

• The study provides a quantitative understanding of nucleation in supercooled Yukawa systems.
• Results suggest a significant delay of approximately 0.6 Gyr in the onset of crystallization for white dwarf stars.
• This predicted delay may be observable, offering insights into stellar evolution.