A. Perezgarrido et Ma. Moore, SIMULATIONS OF 2-DIMENSIONAL MELTING ON THE SURFACE OF A SPHERE, Physical review. B, Condensed matter, 58(15), 1998, pp. 9677-9680
We have simulated a system of classical particles confined on the surf
ace of a sphere interacting with a repulsive r(-12) potential. The sam
e system simulated on a plane with periodic boundary conditions has va
n der Waals loops in pressure-density plots that are usually interpret
ed as evidence for a first-order melting transition, but on the sphere
such loops are absent. We also investigated the structure factor and
from the width of the first peak as a function of density we can show
that the growth of the correlation length is consistent with Kosterlit
z-Thouless-Halperin-Nelson-Young theory. This suggests that simulation
s of two-dimensional melting phenomena are best performed on the surfa
ce of a sphere. [S0163-1829(98)03535-8].