Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 2: Statistical Physics (General)

DY 2.10: Invited Talk

Monday, March 26, 2012, 12:15–12:45, MA 004

Melting transition of hard disks — •Werner Krauth — Departement de physique, Ecole normale superieure, Paris, France

The hard-disk model has exerted outstanding influence on computational physics and statistical mechanics. Decades ago, hard disks were the first system to be studied by Markov-chain Monte Carlo methods and by molecular dynamics. It was in hard disks, through numerical simulations, that a two-dimensional melting transition was first seen to occur even though such systems cannot develop long-range crystalline order. Analysis of the system was made difficult by the absence of powerful simulation methods.

In recent years, we have developed a number of powerful Monte Carlo algorithms for hard disks and related systems. I will in particular show how the powerful event-chain Monte Carlo algorithm has allowed us to prove that hard disks melt with a first-order transition from the liquid to the hexatic and a continuous transition from the hexatic to the solid.