Analysis of a Lennard-Jones fcc structure melting to the corresponding frozen liquid: Differences between the bulk and the surface

We computed a Lennard-Jones frozen liquid with a free surface using classical molecular dynamics. The structure factor curves on the free surface of this sample were calculated for different depths knowing that we have periodic boundary conditions on the other parts of the sample. The resulting structure factor curves show an horizontal shift of their first peak depending on how deep in the sample the curves are computed. We analyze our resulting curves in the light of spatial correlation functions during melting. The conclusion is that the differences between bulk and surface are quite small during melting and that at the end of melting, only the very surface happens to be less dense than the bulk. This result is intrinsic to the shape of the Lennard-Jones potential and does not depend on any other parameter.