The melting of the classical two-dimensional Wigner crystal

We report an extensive Monte Carlo study of the melting of the classical two-dimensional Wigner crystal for a system of point particles interacting via the 1/r-Coulomb potential. A hexatic phase is found in large enough systems. With the multiple histograms method and the finite-size scaling theory, we show that the fluid/hexatic phase transition is weakly first order. No set of critical exponents, consistent with a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition and the finite-size scaling analysis for this transition, has been found. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2015