Rigidity of Orientationally Ordered Domains of Short Chain Molecules

Abstract

A strange rigid-like nature for a hexagonally packed domain of short chain molecules is discovered by molecular dynamics simulation. In spite of the non-bonded short-range interaction potential (Lennard-Jones potential) among chain molecules, the packed domain gives rise to an apparent global moment of inertia. Accordingly, as two domains encounter each other obliquely, they rotate so as to be parallel to each other, keeping their overall structures as if they were rigid bodies.