It is generally agreed that the supercritical region of a liquid consists of one single state (supercritical fluid). On the other hand, we show here that liquids in this region exist in two qualitatively different states: "rigid" and "nonrigid" liquids. Rigid to nonrigid transition corresponds to the condition τ≈τ(0), where τ is the liquid relaxation time and τ(0) is the minimal period of transverse quasiharmonic waves. This condition defines a new dynamic crossover line on the phase diagram and corresponds to the loss of shear stiffness of a liquid at all available frequencies and, consequently, to the qualitative change in many important liquid properties. We analyze this line theoretically as well as in real and model fluids and show that the transition corresponds to the disappearance of high-frequency sound, to the disappearance of roton minima, qualitative changes in the temperature dependencies of sound velocity, diffusion, viscous flow, and thermal conductivity, an increase in particle thermal speed to half the speed of sound, and a reduction in the constant volume specific heat to 2k(B) per particle. In contrast to the Widom line that exists near the critical point only, the new dynamic line is universal: It separates two liquid states at arbitrarily high pressure and temperature and exists in systems where liquid-gas transition and the critical point are absent altogether. We propose to call the new dynamic line on the phase diagram "Frenkel line".

Recently, we have proposed a new dynamic line on the phase diagram in the supercritical region. Crossing this line corresponds to the radical changes of the fluid properties. Here, we focus on the dynamics of model Lennard-Jones and Soft-Sphere fluids. We show that the change of the dynamics from the liquid-like to gas-like can be established on the basis of the velocity autocorrelation function and mean-square displacement. Using the rigorous criterion, we show that the crossover of particle dynamics and key liquid properties occurs at the same line. We further show that positive sound dispersion disappears in the vicinity of this line in both kinds of systems. The dynamic line bears no relationship to the existence of the critical point. We find that the region of existence of liquid-like dynamics narrows with the increase of the exponent of the repulsive part of inter-particle potential.

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We report a computer-simulation study of the equilibrium phase diagram of a three-dimensional system of particles with a repulsive-shoulder potential. The phase diagram was obtained using free-energy calculations. At low temperatures, we observe a number of distinct crystal phases. We show that at certain values of the potential parameters the system exhibits the waterlike thermodynamic anomalies: a density anomaly and a diffusion anomaly. The anomalies disappear with increasing the repulsive step width: more precisely, their locations move to the region where the crystalline phase is stable.