Computer simulation of solid-liquid coexistence in binary hard-sphere mixtures

The authors report the first numerical simulation of the melting curve of a binary mixture. The melting curves of binary hard-sphere mixtures with diameter ratios alpha =0.95 and 0.90 were obtained by Monte Carlo simulation. For alpha =0.95 the phase diagram is found to be spindle-like; for alpha =0.90 it exhibits an azeotrope. They compare these findings with predictions based on density-functional theory