Equilibrium sampling of hard spheres up to the jamming density and beyond

Ludovic Berthier (1) , Daniele Coslovich (1) , Andrea Saverio Ninarello (1) , Misaki Ozawa (1)

1 L2C - Laboratoire Charles Coulomb

We implement and optimize a particle-swap Monte-Carlo algorithm that allows us to thermalize a polydisperse system of hard spheres up to unprecedentedly-large volume fractions, where \revise{previous} algorithms and experiments fail to equilibrate. We show that no glass singularity intervenes before the jamming density, which we independently determine through two distinct non-equilibrium protocols. We demonstrate that equilibrium fluid and non-equilibrium jammed states can have the same density, showing that the jamming transition cannot be the end-point of the fluid branch.

Domaines: Mécanique statistique [cond-mat.stat-mech]; Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]

Ludovic Berthier, Daniele Coslovich, Andrea Saverio Ninarello, Misaki Ozawa. Equilibrium sampling of hard spheres up to the jamming density and beyond. Physical Review Letters, 2016, 116, pp.238002. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.238002⟩. ⟨hal-01331594⟩