Multiple occupancy crystals formed by purely repulsive soft particles

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DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/20/49/494245
Reference B.M. Mladek, P. Charbonneau, C.N. Likos, D. Frenkel and G. Kahl, Multiple occupancy crystals formed by purely repulsive soft particles, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 20, (49, Article number: 494245), 1-9 (2008)

Recently, particular interest has been placed in the study of a strikingly counter-intuitive phenomenon: the clustering of purely repulsive soft particles. This contribution serves the purpose of both reviewing our current understanding of the multiple occupancy crystals and presenting details of recently developed tailor-cut approaches to the problem. We first indicate, by use of analytically tractable examples, how such a phenomenon can arise at all. We then show that the thermodynamic formalism has to be adapted when studying such systems and present a novel computer simulation technique apt to do so. Finally, we discuss the intriguing mechanical and structural responses of such systems upon increasing the density.