Complex phase diagram from simple interactions in a one-component system

Abstract

The pressure-temperature phase diagram of a one-component system, with particles interacting through a spherically symmetric pair potential is studied. It is shown that if the pair potential allows for a discontinuous reduction of the volume of the system when pressure is increased (at zero temperature), then the phase diagram obtained has many ``water like'' characteristics. Among these characteristics the negative thermal expansion and expansion upon freezing in some range of pressure, and the existence of many different crystaline structures are clearly observable in numerical simulations. This implies that complex phase diagrams are not necessarily originated in complex microscopic interactions.