%0 Journal Article %J Physical Review Letters %D 2009 %T Minimal Energy Clusters of Hard Spheres with Short Range Attractions %A Natalie Arkus %A Vinothan N. Manoharan %A Brenner, Michael P %X

We calculate the ground states of hard-sphere clusters, in which n identical hard spherical particles bind by isotropic short-ranged attraction. Combining graph theoretic enumeration with basic geometry, we analytically solve for clusters of n<=10 particles satisfying minimal rigidity constraints. For n<=9 the ground state degeneracy increases exponentially with n, but for n>9 the degeneracy decreases due to the formation of structures with >3n-6 contacts. Interestingly, for n=10 and possibly at n=11 and n=12, the ground states of this system are subsets of hexagonal close-packed crystals. The ground states are not icosahedra at n=12 and n=13. We relate our results to the structure and thermodynamics of suspensions of colloidal particles with short-ranged attractions.

%B Physical Review Letters %V 103 %P 118303-4 %G eng %U http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.118303 %N 11