CONTINUOUS MODEL OF CRYSTAL MELTING AND DESTRUCTION

In this paper we show that the existence of microscopic defects (both point and linear) in the crystal lattice changes the elastic moduli of the solid. Owing to the change of the shear modulus induced by equilibrium defects, the relative shear modulus becomes temperature dependent and this dependence is close to the empirical value. For a wide class of metals, the values of the melting temperature obtained from the requirement that the shear modulus turn to zero are in good agreement with experiment.