Resolving structural transitions in spherical dust clusters

Abstract

Finite systems in confining potentials are known to undergo structural transitions similar to phase transitions. However, these systems are inhomogeneous, and their "melting" point may depend on the position in the trap and vary with the particle number. Focusing on three-dimensional Coulomb systems in a harmonic trap a rich physics is revealed: in addition to radial melting we demonstrate the existence of intrashell disordering and inter-shell angular melting. Our analysis takes advantage of a novel melting criterion that is based on the spatial two and three-particle distribution functions and the associated reduced entropy which can be directly measured in complex plasma experiments.

Substantially extended version

References in corpus (7)

• Crystallization dynamics of a single layer complex plasma
• Coupling Strength in Coulomb and Yukawa One-Component Plasmas
• Evolution of shear-induced melting in dusty plasma
• Melting of trapped few particle systems
• Ground state of a confined Yukawa plasma including correlation effects
• Probability of metastable configurations in spherical three-dimensional Yukawa crystals
• Effective coupling parameter for 2D Yukawa liquids and non-invasive measurement of plasma parameters

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Ab initio Path Integral Monte Carlo Simulations of Quantum Dipole Systems in Traps: Superfluidity, Quantum Statistics, and Structural Properties
• Abnormal superfluid fraction and structural properties of electrons in 2D and 3D quantum dots: an ab initio path-integral Monte Carlo study
• Domain formation and structural stabilities in mixed-species Coulomb crystals induced by sympathetically cooled highly charged ions