https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/s10189-021-00104-y
Regular Article - Flowing Matter
Thermodynamic stability of hard sphere crystals in dimensions 3 through 10
1
Department of Chemistry, Duke University, 27708, Durham, NC, USA
2
Department of Physics, Duke University, 27708, Durham, NC, USA
3
Department of Physics, University of South Florida, 33620, Tampa, FL, USA
Received:
30
April
2021
Accepted:
13
July
2021
Published online:
9
August
2021
Although much is known about the metastable liquid branch of hard spheres—from low dimension d up to 
—its crystal counterpart remains largely unexplored for 
. In particular, it is unclear whether the crystal phase is thermodynamically stable in high dimensions and thus whether a mean-field theory of crystals can ever be exact. In order to determine the stability range of hard sphere crystals, their equation of state is here estimated from numerical simulations, and fluid-crystal coexistence conditions are determined using a generalized Frenkel–Ladd scheme to compute absolute crystal free energies. The results show that the crystal phase is stable at least up to 
, and the dimensional trends suggest that crystal stability likely persists well beyond that point.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, SIF and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021
