195 citations · 1.5k across the 58 of their papers we have counts for
60 papers
Auxetic behaviour in crystals of hard polyhedra
Rinske M. Alkemade, Silvana A. Caipa Cure, Alptuğ Ulugöl +8
Auxetic materials - systems that, when subjected to a compression in one direction, also compress in one or more perpendicular directions - have intrigued researchers for decades d…
Comment on "The elusive fluid-and-crystal coexistence state in simulations of monodisperse, hard-sphere colloids"
Frank Smallenburg
In a recent article [J. G. Wang, U. Dhumal, M. E. Zakhari, and R. N. Zia, AIChE Journal 72, e70275 (2026).], the authors discuss the absence of simulations of monodisperse hard sph…
Vacancy defects in square-triangle tilings and their implications for quasicrystals formed by square-shoulder particles
Alptuğ Ulugöl, Giovanni Del Monte, Eline K. Kempkes +2
Almost all observed square-triangle quasicrystals in soft-matter systems contain a large number of point-like defects, yet the role these defects play in stabilizing the quasicryst…
Self-assembly of quasicrystals under cyclic shear
Raphaël Maire, Andrea Plati, Frank Smallenburg +1
We investigate the self-assembly of two-dimensional dodecagonal quasicrystals driven by cyclic shear, effectively replacing thermal fluctuations with plastic rearrangements. Using…
Determining fluid-crystal phase boundaries for a binary hard-sphere mixture using direct-coexistence simulations
Rinske M. Alkemade, Alessandro Salo, Laura Filion +1
Determining fluid-crystal phase boundaries via direct-coexistence methods can be challenging due to the fact that the simulation box can introduce crystal strain. Recently, a direc…
Local composition fluctuations act as precursors for crystal nucleation in polydisperse hard spheres
Marjolein de Jager, Antoine Castagnède, Frank Smallenburg +1
We revisit the effect of polydispersity on the crystal nucleation of hard spheres. Using event-driven molecular dynamics simulations, we obtain the nucleation rate as a function of…
Conservation laws and slow dynamics determine the universality class of interfaces in active matter
Raphaël Maire, Andrea Plati, Frank Smallenburg +1
While equilibrium interfaces display universal large-scale statistics, interfaces in phase-separated active and driven systems are predicted to belong to distinct non-equilibrium u…
Solid-angle based nearest-neighbor algorithm adapted for systems with low coordination number
Alptuğ Ulugöl, Frank Smallenburg, Laura Filion
Nearest-neighbor identification is central to the analysis of local structure in condensed matter systems. The solid-angle-based nearest-neighbor (SANN) algorithm is widely used of…
Comparing dimensionality reduction methods for local structural identification in colloidal systems
Alptuğ Ulugöl, Jessi Bückmann, Ruizhi Yang +4
Quantifying local structures in self-assembled systems is a central challenge in soft matter and materials science. When no a priori knowledge of the relevant structures is availab…
Characterizing the cage state of glassy systems and its sensitivity to frozen boundaries
Rinske M. Alkemade, Frank Smallenburg, Laura Filion
Understanding the role that structure plays in the dynamical arrest observed in glassy systems remains an open challenge. Over the last decade, machine learning (ML) strategies hav…
Dynamical and structural properties of an absorbing phase transition: a case study from granular systems
Raphael Maire, Andrea Plati, Frank Smallenburg +1
We investigate the dynamical and structural properties of absorbing phase transitions (APTs) within granular systems. Specifically, we examine a model for vibrofluidized systems of…
Freezing line of polydisperse hard spheres via direct-coexistence simulations
Antoine Castagnède, Laura Filion, Frank Smallenburg
In experimental systems, colloidal particles are virtually always at least somewhat polydisperse, which can have profound effects on their ability to crystallize. Unfortunately, ac…
The Free-Energy Barrier of Precritical Nuclei in Hard Spheres is Consistent with Predictions
Lars Kürten, Antoine Castagnède, Frank Smallenburg +1
Predicting crystal nucleation is among the most significant long--standing challenges in condensed matter. In the system most studied (hard sphere colloids), the comparison between…
Machine learning short-ranged many-body interactions in colloidal systems using descriptors based on Voronoi cells
Rinske M. Alkemade, Rastko Sknepnek, Frank Smallenburg +1
Machine learning (ML) strategies are opening the door to faster computer simulations, allowing us to simulate more realistic colloidal systems. Since the interactions in colloidal…
Non-equilibrium coexistence between a fluid and a hotter or colder crystal of granular hard disks
R. Maire, A. Plati, F. Smallenburg +1
Non-equilibrium phase coexistence is commonly observed in both biological and artificial systems, yet understanding it remains a significant challenge. Unlike equilibrium systems,…
Self-assembly and non-equilibrium phase coexistence in a binary granular mixture
A. Plati, R. Maire, F. Boulogne +3
We report the experimental observation of a square crystalline phase in a vibrated binary mixture of spherical grains. This structure spontaneously forms from a disordered state, c…
Defects Enhance Stability in 12-fold Symmetric Soft-Matter Quasicrystals
Alptuğ Ulugöl, Robert J. Hardeman, Frank Smallenburg +1
Quasicrystals are materials that exhibit long-range order without translational periodicity. In soft matter, the most commonly observed quasicrystal has 12-fold symmetry and consis…
Statistical mechanics of crystal nuclei of hard spheres
Marjolein de Jager, Carlos Vega, Pablo Montero de Hijes +2
In the study of crystal nucleation via computer simulations, hard spheres are arguably the most extensively explored model system. Nonetheless, even in this simple model system, th…
Fast event-driven simulations for soft spheres: from dynamics to Laves phase nucleation
Antoine Castagnède, Laura Filion, Frank Smallenburg
Conventional molecular dynamics (MD) simulations struggle when simulating particles with steeply varying interaction potentials, due to the need to use a very short time step. Here…
A simple and accurate method to determine fluid-crystal phase boundaries from direct coexistence simulations
Frank Smallenburg, Giovanni Del Monte, Marjolein de Jager +1
One method for computationally determining phase boundaries is to explicitly simulate a direct coexistence between the two phases of interest. Although this approach works very wel…
Interplay between an absorbing phase transition and synchronization in a driven granular system
R. Maire, A. Plati, M. Stockinger +3
Absorbing phase transitions (APTs) are widespread in non-equilibrium systems, spanning condensed matter, epidemics, earthquakes, ecology, and chemical reactions. APTs feature an ab…
Quasi-crystalline order in vibrated granular matter
Andrea Plati, Raphael Maire, Etienne Fayen +4
Quasi-crystals are aperiodic structures that present crystallographic properties which are not compatible with that of a single unit cell. Their revolutionary discovery in a metall…
In search of a precursor for crystal nucleation of hard and charged colloids
Marjolein de Jager, Frank Smallenburg, Laura Filion
The interplay between crystal nucleation and the structure of the metastable fluid has been a topic of significant debate over recent years. In particular, it has been suggested th…
A hard-sphere quasicrystal stabilized by configurational entropy
Etienne Fayen, Laura Filion, Giuseppe Foffi +1
Due to their aperiodic nature, quasicrystals are one of the least understood phases in statistical physics. One significant complication they present in comparison to their periodi…