English

Dynamic heterogeneity in a glass forming fluid: susceptibility, structure factor and correlation length

Soft Condensed Matter 2015-05-19 v2 Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

We investigate the growth of dynamic heterogeneity in a glassy hard-sphere mixture for volume fractions up to and including the mode-coupling transition. We use an 80 000 particle system to test a new procedure to evaluate a dynamic correlation length xi(t): we determine the ensemble independent dynamic susceptibility chi_4(t) and use it to facilitate evaluation of xi(t) from the small wave vector behavior of the four-point structure factor. We analyze relations between the alpha relaxation time tau_alpha, chi_4(tau_alpha), and xi(tau_alpha). We find that mode-coupling like power laws provide a reasonable description of the data over a restricted range of volume fractions, but the power laws' exponents differ from those predicted by the inhomogeneous mode-coupling theory. We find xi(tau_alpha) ~ ln(tau_alpha) over the full range of volume fractions studied, which is consistent with Adams-Gibbs-type relation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1005.3794,
  title  = {Dynamic heterogeneity in a glass forming fluid: susceptibility, structure factor and correlation length},
  author = {Elijah Flenner and Grzegorz Szamel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1005.3794},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

4 pages, 4 figures, To be published in Physical Review Letters

R2 v1 2026-06-21T15:25:48.136Z