Competition between short-ranged attraction and short-ranged repulsion in crowded configurational space: A lattice model description

We describe a simple nearest-neighbor Ising model that is capable of supporting a gas, liquid, and crystal, in characteristic relationship to each other. As the parameters of the model are varied, one obtains characteristic patterns of phase behavior reminiscent of continuum systems where the range of the interaction is varied. The model also possesses dynamical arrest, and although we have not studied it in detail, these “transitions” appear to have a reasonable relationship to the phases and their transitions.