Random sequential adsorption of starlike particles

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2015 Apr;91(4):042404. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.91.042404. Epub 2015 Apr 20.

Abstract

Random packing of surfaceless starlike particles built of 3 to 50 line segments was studied using random sequential adsorption algorithm. Numerical simulations allow us to determine saturated packing densities as well as the first two virial expansion coefficients for such objects. Measured kinetics of the packing growth supports the power law known to be valid for particles with a finite surface; however, the dependence of the exponent in this law on the number of star arms is unexpected. The density autocorrelation function shows fast superexponential decay as for disks, but the typical distance between closest stars is much smaller than between disks of the similar size, especially for a small number of arms.