Structures, Phase Transitions and Other Dynamical Processes in Inhomogeneous Van der Waals Clusters

This paper is concerned with the properties and dynamical propensities of manybody Van der Waals clusters, species too large to be treated quantum mechanically as a single molecule, yet far too small to take on the properties of a macroscopic sample of matter. The work was motivated by a desire to understand what happens to the familiar macroscopic property known as a “phase transition” when a system becomes “finite”, on a molecular scale. More particularly, we wish to learn how the nature of the intermolec­ular forces between the component particles affect these properties.