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The structure of the hard sphere solid

Charles Radin·Lorenzo Sadun
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Abstract

We show that near densest-packing the perturbations of the HCP structure yield higher entropy than perturbations of any other densest packing. The difference between the various structures shows up in the correlations between motions of nearest neighbors. In the HCP structure random motion of each sphere impinges slightly less on the motion of its nearest neighbors than in the other structures.

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Charles Radin, Lorenzo Sadun. 2004-09-08. The structure of the hard sphere solid. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.94.015502

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