Abstract
Many experiments and simulations of packings of monodisperse hard spheres report a dominance of the face-centered cubic structure in the hexagonally close-packed limit, even though it has no significant energetic or entropic gain over other close-packed configurations. Combining simulations and experiments, we demonstrate that a simple mechanical instability which occurs during the packing process may play an important role in selecting the face-centered cubic structure over other close-packed alternatives. Our argument is supported by detailed quantitative analyses of key configurations in sphere packings and highlights the importance of the packing dynamics. The proposed mechanism is elementary and should therefore play a role in a wide range of sphere systems.
- Received 8 December 2011
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.148302
© 2012 American Physical Society
Synopsis
Survival of the Fitter
Published 5 April 2012
Hard spheres may favor one structural arrangement over others that are less mechanically stable during assembly.
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