Geometry and the entropic cost of locally favoured structures in a liquid

The role of the geometry of locally favoured structures in an equilibrium liquid is analyzed within a recently developed lattice model. The local geometry is shown to influence the liquid through the entropy and the associated density of states. We show that favoured local structures with low symmetry will, generally, incur a low entropy cost and, as a consequence, the liquid will exhibit a substantial accumulation of these low energy environments on cooling prior to the freezing transition. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3701617]