Effect of a potential softness on the solid-liquid transition in a two-dimensional core-softened potential system.

In the present paper, using a molecular dynamics simulation, we study a nature of melting of a two-dimensional (2D) system of classical particles interacting through a purely repulsive isotropic core-softened potential which is used for the qualitative description of the anomalous behavior of water and some other liquids. We show that the melting scenario drastically depends on the potential softness and changes with increasing the width of the smooth repulsive shoulder. While at small width of the repulsive shoulder the melting transition exhibits what appears to be weakly first-order behavior, at larger values of the width a reentrant-melting transition occurs upon compression for not too high pressures, and in the low density part of the 2D phase diagram melting is a continuous two-stage transition, with an intermediate hexatic phase in accordance with the Kosterlitz-Thouless-Halperin-Nelson-Young scenario. On the other hand, at high density part of the phase diagram one first-order transition takes place. These results may be useful for the qualitative understanding the behavior of water confined between two hydrophobic plates.