Testing for Universal Characteristics in the Melting/Freezing Transition of Sn

Much of the theoretical discussion on melting of crystalline solids focuses on the usage of methods which employ free energy matching or direct molecular dynamics simulations of phase transitions, such as heat-until-melt, Z-method or two-phase coexistence-based simulations. In this work, we examine the melt/freeze signatures in Sn not just by using the aforementioned techniques, but also by putting to test the approach developed by Daligault [1]. It proposes the existence of a universal structural metric defined on the basis of the mean first-passage time of atomic motion in a liquid phase and devoid of explicit thermodynamic considerations, which is sufficient to accurately predict the onset of freezing transition in monoatomic liquids.



[1] J. Daligault, arXiv:2009.14718v1 (2021)