Amplitude Instability in Two-Dimensional Hexagonal Clusters

The conditions for the formation of amplitude instabilities in two-dimensional Yukawa systems consisting of seven charged particles have been investigated. An analytical approach to searching for a criterion of the development of such instabilities based on the determination of the inflection point of a system's potential energy when the particles deviate from their equilibrium positions is considered. The results obtained are compared with the melting criteria for extended two-dimensional systems.