Geometric frustration of hard-disk packings on cones

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Sun, Jessica H., Plummer, Abigail, Zhang, Grace H., Nelson, David R., Manoharan, Vinothan N.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Sun, Jessica H.
Plummer, Abigail
Zhang, Grace H.
Nelson, David R.
Manoharan, Vinothan N.
author_facet Sun, Jessica H.
Plummer, Abigail
Zhang, Grace H.
Nelson, David R.
Manoharan, Vinothan N.
contents Conical surfaces pose an interesting challenge to crystal growth: a crystal growing on a cone can wrap around and meet itself at different radii. We use a disk-packing algorithm to investigate how this closure constraint can geometrically frustrate the growth of single crystals on cones with small opening angles. By varying the crystal seed orientation and cone angle, we find that -- except at special commensurate cone angles -- crystals typically form a seam that runs along the axial direction of the cone, while near the tip, a disordered particle packing forms. We show that the onset of disorder results from a finite-size effect that depends strongly on the circumference and not on the seed orientation or cone angle. This finite-size effect occurs also on cylinders, and we present evidence that on both cylinders and cones, the defect density increases exponentially as circumference decreases. We introduce a simple model for particle attachment at the seam that explains the dependence on the circumference. Our findings suggest that the growth of single crystals can become frustrated even very far from the tip when the cone has a small opening angle. These results may provide insights into the observed geometry of conical crystals in biological and materials applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_14446
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Geometric frustration of hard-disk packings on cones
Sun, Jessica H.
Plummer, Abigail
Zhang, Grace H.
Nelson, David R.
Manoharan, Vinothan N.
Soft Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
Conical surfaces pose an interesting challenge to crystal growth: a crystal growing on a cone can wrap around and meet itself at different radii. We use a disk-packing algorithm to investigate how this closure constraint can geometrically frustrate the growth of single crystals on cones with small opening angles. By varying the crystal seed orientation and cone angle, we find that -- except at special commensurate cone angles -- crystals typically form a seam that runs along the axial direction of the cone, while near the tip, a disordered particle packing forms. We show that the onset of disorder results from a finite-size effect that depends strongly on the circumference and not on the seed orientation or cone angle. This finite-size effect occurs also on cylinders, and we present evidence that on both cylinders and cones, the defect density increases exponentially as circumference decreases. We introduce a simple model for particle attachment at the seam that explains the dependence on the circumference. Our findings suggest that the growth of single crystals can become frustrated even very far from the tip when the cone has a small opening angle. These results may provide insights into the observed geometry of conical crystals in biological and materials applications.
title Geometric frustration of hard-disk packings on cones
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.14446