HOW THE CHOICE OF SHAPE AND ENSEMBLE AFFECT SIMULATIONS OF 2-DIMENSIONAL MELTING

Nonequilibrium quenching in two-dimensional simulations from a solid o r liquid to an interfacial-hexatic regime demonstrates the sensitivity of the final results to the shape of the simulation box (final size e ffect) and to the molecular dynamics ensemble used (constant density v ersus constant pressure). Even for a small system of N = 1024 particle s, under no circumstance is stabilization of the structure factor reac hed before some nanoseconds. This means that the results given by Naid oo et al. [Mel. Phys. 80, 1 (1993)] using hexatic structure boundaries are too small and pose the question of whether all the published work on two-dimensional melting has used systems that are too small and si mulation times that are too short.