Two-dimensional system with a quasi-crystalline ground state

F. Lançon , L. Billard

We study dense packings of particles with interactions favouring pentagonal symmetry. Such structures can be obtained by decorations of Penrose tilings or directly with a cut-and-projection method. We prove that they form the degenerated ground-state in the case of pair potentials limited to first neighbours and for interaction strength parameters lying in broad ranges of values. Cooling runs from the liquid, simulated by molecular dynamics, produce either a glassy state or a quasi-crystalline state depending on the quenching rate.

Keywords: crystal symmetry; molecular dynamics method; quasicrystals

Domains: Physics archives

F. Lançon, L. Billard. Two-dimensional system with a quasi-crystalline ground state. Journal de Physique, 1988, 49 (2), pp.249-256. ⟨10.1051/jphys:01988004902024900⟩. ⟨jpa-00210691⟩