Structural ordering and glass forming of soft spherical particles with harmonic repulsions

We carry out dissipative particle dynamics simulations to investigate the dynamic process of phase transformation in the system with harmonic repulsion particles. Just below the melting point, the system undergoes liquid state, face-centered cubic crystallization, body-centered cubic crystallization, and reentrant melting phase transition upon compression, which is in good agreement with the phase diagram constructed previously via thermodynamic integration. However, when the temperature is decreased sufficiently, the system is trapped into an amorphous and frustrated glass state in the region of intermediate density, where the solid phase and crystal structure should be thermodynamically most stable. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.