Phase diagram of a classical fluid in a quenched random potential

¹ Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science - Bangalore 560012, India and Condensed Matter Theory Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research - Bangalore 560064, India
² Laboratoire d'Etudes des Propriétés Electroniques des Solides (Laboratoire associé à l'Université Joseph Fourier.) Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - BP166, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France

Received: 6 August 1999
Accepted: 17 January 2000

Abstract

We consider the phase diagram of a classical fluid in the presence of a random pinning potential of arbitrary strength. Introducing replicas for averaging over the quenched disorder, we use the hypernetted chain approximation to calculate the correlations in the replicated liquid. The freezing transition of the liquid into a nearly crystalline state is studied using a density functional approach, and the liquid-to-glass transition is studied using a phenomenological replica symmetry breaking approach introduced by Mézard and Parisi. The first-order liquid-to-crystal transition is found to change to a continuous liquid-to-glass transition as the strength of the disorder is increased above a threshold value.