FREEZING OF YUKAWA SYSTEMS NEAR THE ONE-COMPONENT-PLASMA LIMIT

It is shown that the Yukawa freezing results as obtained recently by F arouki and Hamaguchi [J. Chem. Phys. 101, 9885 (1994)] using molecular dynamics simulations contradict the Monte Carlo results of Meijer and Frenkel [J. Chem. Phys. 94, 2269 (1991)], the molecular dynamics resu lts of Stevens and Robbins [J. Chem. Phys. 98, 2319 (1993)], as well a s several empirical freezing criteria. A systematic inquiry finally id entified the cause for the Farouki and Hamaguchi incorrect result, and solved the discrepancy. The present analysis provides the corrected f reezing line for Yukawa systems in the weak screening region, near the one-component-plasma limit. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.