Jim Lutsko

Jim Lutsko

My interests include Statistical Physics; Crystallization; Density Functional Theory, Simulation methods - particularly rare event techniques, Protein physics, Granular physics and Crystal Growth. I am based in the Physics of Complex Systems and Statistical Mechanics group at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

[036] Molecular Chaos, Pair Correlations, and Shear-Induced Ordering of Hard Spheres

James F. Lutsko, "Molecular Chaos, Pair Correlations, and Shear-Induced Ordering of Hard Spheres", Phys. Rev. Lett., 77, 2225 (1996) http://jimlutsko.github.io/files/Lutsko96.pdf

Abstract

We present results of molecular dynamics simulations that show that the shear-induced ordering of hard spheres is preceded by the apparent decrease to zero (in certain directions) of the anisotropic pair-distribution function (PDF) at contact. This precursor to the ordering is explained on the basis of a careful interpretation of the meaning of ”molecular chaos” in hard-sphere systems. An ansatz is proposed to model the nonequilibrium PDF at finite separations and is shown to compare well with simulations.