DESPITE the strong interest in melting over the past 100 years, a general theory for the
crystal–liquid transition has not been established1. Lattice-instability models, which are …

Melting is well understood in terms of the Lindemann criterion, which essentially states that
crystalline materials melt when the thermal vibrations of their atoms become so vigorous that …

We report simulations of glassy arrest in hard-core particles with short-range interparticle
attraction. Previous experiments, theory, and simulations suggest that in this kind of system …

Colloids display intriguing transitions between gas, liquid, solid and liquid crystalline
phases. Such phase transitions are ubiquitous in nature and have been studied for decades …

Dispersions of colloidal particles exhibit thermodynamic properties similar to those of
molecular systems, including a hard sphere disorder-to-order transition. In experiments with …

Melting is a familiar process not expected to show surprises: the melting of ice in a cocktail is
expected to produce cooling not heating. Yet just such an effect—inverse melting—has been …

In contrast with crystallization, there is no noticeable structural change at the glass transition.
Characteristic features of glassy dynamics that appear below an onset temperature, T 0 …

Some binary mixtures exist as a single phase at high temperatures and as two phases at
lower temperatures; rapid cooling therefore induces phase separation that proceeds through …

The real-space structure of hard-sphere glasses quenched from colloidal liquids in
thermodynamic equilibrium has been determined. Particle coordinates were obtained by …

If liquids, polymers, bio-materials, metals and molten salts can avoid crystallization during
cooling or compression, they freeze into a microscopically disordered solid-like state, a …