On the freezing and structure of hard spheres under spherical confinement

Effect of confinement and topology: 2-TIPS vs. MIPS

“…Such layering of particles leading to density oscillation is well studied in equilibrium systems. [77][78][79] The magnitude of density oscillations increases with density and decreases with increase in confining volume. Fig.…”

Mean properties and free energy of a few hard spheres confined in a spherical cavity

“…From a theoretical point of view, a few particles confined in a cavity can be regarded as the few-bodies limit of the liquid or fluid states and also as a limiting case in which the curvature of the confining wall is very significant. Systems of many particles interacting through simple potentials, that form bulk fluid phases, confined in spherical cavities produce a rich set of structural and thermal properties and were studied thoroughly [7][8][9].…”

“…One of us performed analytical calculations for two and three HS confined in a spherical cavity [19][20][21][22] and in pores of different shapes [21]. Huang and co-workers studied recently, by molecular dynamics simulation the structure and equation of state of hard sphere confined in a small spherical geometry, with a focus in a freezing-like transition at high densities [9]. Based on the HS interaction, Winkler et al analyzed phase transitions of a colloid-polymer mixture inside a hard spherical cavity [12].…”