ARCHER2 Calendar November 2026

Ice is born in vibrating nanopores

Mr Pengxu Chen, School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh

* * * Winning Early Career entry, ARCHER2 Image and Video Competition 2025 * * *

Ice nucleation in supercooled water begins when small molecular clusters organize into the first ice-like structures. The figure shows this process: white molecules indicate ice (transparent particles) forming within supercooled water (blue particles) confined in a nanopore whose wall vibrates. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that vibration induces negative pressure as the wall stretches the confined liquid. This tension promotes the growth of larger ice-like clusters, thereby accelerating nucleation. Once these clusters reach a critical size, they coalesce into a stable front that propagates swiftly across the nanopore, transforming the entire volume into ice. All simulations were conducted in LAMMPS on the ARCHER2.

This image was published on the November page of the ARCHER2 2026 printed calendar.