Continuum percolation of long lifespan clusters in a simple fluid.

PUGNALONI, LUIS A.; CARLEVARO, CARLOS M.; VALLUZZI, MARCOS G.; VERICAT, FERNANDO

JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS

American Institute of Physics

Lugar: New York; Año: 2008 vol. 129 p. 1 - 6

0021-9606

We present results on the percolation loci for chemical clusters and physical clusters of longlifespan. Chemical clusters are defined as sets of particles connected through particle-particle bondsthat last for a given time t. Physical clusters are sets of particles that remain close together at everyinstant for a given period of time t. By using molecular dynamics simulations of a Lennard-Jones system we obtain the percolation loci at different values of  as the lines in the temperature-density plane at which the system presents a spanning cluster in 50% of the configurations. We find that the percolation loci for chemical clusters shifts rapidly toward high densities as t is increased. Formoderate values of t this line converges to the low-density branch of the liquid-solid coexistencecurve. This implies that no stable chemical clusters can be found in the fluid phase. In contrast, the percolation loci for physical clusters tend to a limiting line, as t tends to infinity, which is far from the liquid-solid transition line. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.