We investigate particle configurations interacting through a short-range pair-potential. In the limit of large particle number and at low total energy, we establish the emergence of a well-defined macroscopic cluster of constant density, and of an effective surface energy functional arising as a Gamma-limit. The surface functional and the cluster shape arising from minimising particle configurations are determined explicitly in examples of physical interest, including arbitrary 2D configurations and 3D subsets of the face-centred cubic lattice interacting via the Heitmann-Radin potential     «

We investigate particle configurations interacting through a short-range pair-potential. In the limit of large particle number and at low total energy, we establish the emergence of a well-defined macroscopic cluster of constant density, and of an effective surface energy functional arising as a Gamma-limit. The surface functional and the cluster shape arising from minimising particle configurations are determined explicitly in examples of physical interest, including arbitrary 2D configurations...     »