Melting in Two-Dimensional Lennard-Jones Systems: Observation of a Metastable Hexatic Phase

Abstract

Large scale molecular dynamics simulations of two-dimensional melting have been carried out using a recently revised Parrinello-Rahman scheme on massively parallel supercomputers. A metastable state is observed between the solid and liquid phases in Lennard-Jones systems of 36 864 and 102 400 atoms. This intermediate state shows the characteristics of the hexatic phase predicted by the theory of Kosterlitz, Thouless, Halperin, Nelson, and Young.