Department of Physics Papers
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
6-17-2011
Abstract
We propose a free-energy-based Monte Carlo method to measure the volume of potential-energy basins in configuration space. Using this approach we can estimate the number of distinct potential-energy minima, even when this number is much too large to be sampled directly. We validate our approach by comparing our results with the direct enumeration of distinct jammed states in small packings of frictionless spheres. We find that the entropy of distinct packings is extensive and that the entropy of distinct hard-sphere packings must have a maximum as a function of packing fraction.
Date Posted: 14 July 2011
This document has been peer reviewed.
Comments
Xu, N., Frenkel, D. and Liu, A.J. (2011). Direct Determination of the Size of Basins of Attraction of Jammed Solids. Physical Review Letters 106, 245502.
© 2011 American Physical Society
http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.245502.