Molecular Dynamics on Diffusive Time Scales from the Phase Field Crystal Equation

Abstract

We extend the phase field crystal model to accommodate exact atomic configurations and vacancies by requiring the order parameter to be non-negative. The resulting theory dictates the number of atoms and describes the motion of each of them. By solving the dynamical equation of the model, which is a partial differential equation, we are essentially performing molecular dynamics simulations on diffusive time-scales. To illustrate this approach, we calculate the two-point correlation function of a liquid.