Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 155501 (2007) [4 pages]Why is Random Close Packing Reproducible?Received 15 January 2007; published 9 October 2007 We link the thermodynamics of colloidal suspensions to the statistics of regular and random packings. Random close packing has defied a rigorous definition yet, in three dimensions, there is near universal agreement on the volume fraction at which it occurs. We conjecture that the common value of ϕrcp≈0.64 arises from a divergence in the rate at which accessible states disappear. We relate this rate to the equation of state for a hard-sphere fluid on a metastable, noncrystalline branch. © 2007 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.155501
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.155501
PACS:
61.43.Fs, 45.70.Cc, 82.70.Dd
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