We study changes in the chaotic properties of a many-body system undergoing asolid-fluid phase transition. To do this, we compute the temperature dependenceof the largest Lyapunov exponents $\lambda_{max}$ for both two- andthree-dimensional periodic systems of $N$-particles for various densities. Theparticles interact through a soft-core potential. The two-dimensional systemexhibits an apparent second-order phase transition as indicated by a$\lambda$-shaped peak in the specific heat. The first derivative of$\lambda_{max}$ with respect to the temperature shows a peak at the sametemperature. The three-dimensional system shows jumps, in both system energyand $\lambda_{max}$, at the same temperature, suggesting a first-order phasetransition. Relaxation phenomena in the phase-transition region are analyzed byusing the local time averages.
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