‘Melting’ of Coulomb interacting particles, Classical and Quantum (Boltzmann) in different Two-Dimensional Trapping Potential

Bhattacharya, Dyuti (2015) ‘Melting’ of Coulomb interacting particles, Classical and Quantum (Boltzmann) in different Two-Dimensional Trapping Potential. PhD thesis, Indian Institute of Sceince Education and Research Kolkata.

PDF (PhD thesis of Dyuti Bhattacharya (09RS029)) Dyuti_Bhattacharya.pdf - Submitted Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (10MB)

Abstract

In this thesis, we explored the formation of a Wigner solid and its melting due to both the thermal and quantum fluctuations in a 2D confined system of Coulomb interacting particles. We further compared the nature of such melting induced by the thermal and quantum fluctuations. We also identified the role of disorder in the form of irregularities in the confinement on the melting process itself. While such melting has been investigated in the past mostly on circularly confined system, our identification of a solid phase in the irregular system is indeed a new finding. The irregularity brings in different facets and helps devising new criteria for identifying the melting and its mechanism. We have formulated different criteria like Lindemann ratio, Bond-Orienatation Order(BOO), Correlation function, Specific Heat and Individual pair correlation function which is characteristic of finite system only. One of the Key findings of our thesis is: Proliferation of the topological defect ‘Disclination’ along the tortuous path commencing melting in presence of thermal fluctuations in 2D confinement, independent of the underlying symmetry of the traps.

Actions (login required)

View Item