  We report on a large scale computer simulation study of crystal nucleation in
hard spheres. Through a combined analysis of real and reciprocal space data, a
picture of a two-step crystallization process is supported: First dense,
amorphous clusters form which then act as precursors for the nucleation of
well-ordered crystallites. This kind of crystallization process has been
previously observed in systems that interact via potentials that have an
attractive as well as a repulsive part, most prominently in protein solutions.
In this context the effect has been attributed to the presence of metastable
fluid-fluid demixing. Our simulations, however, show that a purely repulsive
system (that has no metastable fluid-fluid coexistence) crystallizes via the
same mechanism.
