A simple monatomic ideal glass former: the glass transition by a first-order phase transition above the melting point

摘要

A liquid can form under cooling a glassy state either as a result of acontinuous slowing down or by a first order polyamorphous phase transition. Thesecond scenario has so far always been observed below the melting point whereit interfered with crystalline nucleation. We report the first observation ofthe liquid-glass transition by a first order phase transition above the meltingpoint. The observation was made in a molecular dynamics simulation of aone-component system with a model metallic pair potential. This is also thefirst observation of a simple monatomic ideal glass former -- a liquid thatavoids crystallization at any cooling rate. Besides its conceptual importance,this result indicates a possibility of existence of metallic ideal glassformers.