Melting of Spherical Yukawa Clusters Analyzed by Monte CarloSimulation

We analyze the melting of spherical Yukawa clusters by Monte Carlo simulations. Spherical clusters are expected to be found in dusty plasmas in an isotropic environment such as microgravity and serve as a model for classical clusters. We obtain the specific heat through fluctuations of the potential energy and identify its peak as the transition temperature. Melting temperatures are compared with those of bulk Yukawa systems and it is confirmed that the melting temperature increases and approaches the bulk value with the increase of the system size.