LOCATING LIQUID-SOLID TRANSITIONS IN COMPUTER-SIMULATIONS BASED ON LOCAL-STRUCTURE ANALYSIS

The concept of local structure in fluids is applied to a complex model fluid with classical translations in two dimensions and two internal quantum states. We demonstrate the usefulness and efficiency of an ana lysis based on local structure parameters that allows us to locate the liquid-solid transition density from configurations generated by stan dard constant-volume simulations. Our findings are in close agreement with recent predictions from a density-functional treatment of this fr eezing transition. In addition to these methodological aspects, open q uestions concerning the conjectured existence of two triple points in the two-dimensional fluid with internal quantum states can be settled.