Inherent structures and distribution functions for liquids that freeze into BCC crystals.

01 January 1984

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The collection of potential energy minima in a condensed phase determines its inherent packing structures. We have examined these inherent structures for a simple model substance which (like Na) freezes into a bcc crystal. Molecular dynamics trajectories at several different temperatures were periodically sampled, and each of the configurations was "quenched" by a steepest- descent construction into a nearby potential energy minimum.