Glass transition in the hard-sphere model

Abstract

Equations of state and transport data for the hard-sphere fluid suggest a quasi-thermodynamic transition from supercooled fluid to amorphous solid at a density slightly greater than the equilibrium freezing density. This has been substantiated with a lengthy MD computation in which the density was increased very gradually from a low density fluid state to almost close-packing. The amorphous close-packed density of 500 spheres with periodic boundary is found to be ρ_aσ³= 1.217 ± 0.004. A glass transition occurs in the density region ρ_gσ³= 1.00 ± 0.01; a (diffuse) thermodynamic transition of the third-order is indicated.