Multiple rings in a 3D anisotropic Wigner crystal: Structural and dynamical properties

Abstract

The structural and dynamical properties of small three-dimensional ͑3D͒ anisotropically confined Wigner crystals of particles interacting via a Coulombic interparticle potential are investigated. Varying the degree of anisotropy of the confinement potential drives the system from a 3D to a one-dimensional configuration intermediated by a sequence of first and second order structural phase transitions. We classified the ground state configurations with respect to their symmetry resulting in three different groups of configurations: multiple ring, degenerate multiple ring, and nonsymmetric structures. The results are summarized in a phase diagram where the different configurations are identified for systems ranging from N = 4 to 25 particles. The behavior of the ground state symmetry of large systems was investigated for the cases of N = 50, 60, and 70 particles. A normal mode analysis reveals that multiple ring structures exhibit inter-ring and/or vortex/ antivortex excitation modes of oscillations.

Dynamical Heterogeneities in 2D Dusty Plasma Liquids at the Discrete Level

“…It is worthwhile to mention that, many recent studies on several interesting topics of dusty plasma liquids have not been covered by this paper, such as the melting transition [8,13,[85][86][87], the melting interface dynamics [88], the scaling behavior of the structural order at different coupling constant [89], the behaviors of the 3D clusters and the 3D liquids [80,81,83,90], etc., to name a few.…”

“…The interplay between the confining force and the mutual interaction also plays the key role to determine the 3D structure and dynamics. For example, depending on confinement trap geometry, the outer region of the cluster can exhibit multi-ring or shell-like structures [83]. Particles can be trapped in different meta-stable states [81].…”

Angular melting scenarios in binary dusty-plasma Coulomb balls: Magic versus normal clusters

“…[27], where we focused on the low-temperature behavior, here we will perform full molecular-dynamics simulations which are able to reveal new features. For instance, this work shows that an unusually high mechanical stability is present when the GS configuration of the binary system is organized in a multiple ring structure [28,29]. Moreover, it is also demonstrated that the magic cluster property of the binary system is very robust and that it only suffers minor effects from the width of the cluster's shell.…”

“…Multiple ring structures were previously found only in anisotropic systems [28,29], and they were found to possess a high melting temperature. Here we demonstrated that high-symmetry configurations can also exhibit a large melting temperature.…”

Shell formation in short like-charged polyelectrolytes in a harmonic trap

“…It is very important to understand how the finite-sized particles behave in the trapping potential of the optical tweezers. While the theoretical and simulation studies on trapped point-charges are extensive [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34], very few theories exist for finite-sized charges in traps. The objective of this work is to theoretically study the distribution of charged polymers in a trap potential to understand the underlying mechanisms of the structure formation in charged biomolecules.…”