Structural equilibration in condensed phases.

This paper examines several general aspects of the natural packing structures for molecules in condensed phases, i.e. the collection of local minima in the many-body potential energy function. These minima are mechanically stable arrangements of the atoms comprising the substance of interest. Kinetic processes (such as diffusion, viscous flow, and chemical relaxation) occur via sequences of transistions between neighboring minima, with each such transition carrying the system nearly through a potential energy saddle point.