Related papers: Activity statistics in a colloidal glass former: e…
The replica theory of glasses predicts that in the infinite dimensional mean field limit there exist two distinct glassy phases of matter: stable glass and marginal glass. We have developed a technique to experimentally probe these phases…
We study the heterogeneous dynamics of attractive colloidal particles close to the gel transition using confocal microscopy experiments combined with a theoretical statistical analysis. We focus on single particle dynamics and show that the…
The structural arrest of a polymeric suspension might be driven by an increase of the cross--linker concentration, that drives the gel transition, as well as by an increase of the polymer density, that induces a glass transition. These…
The dynamics of a dense binary mixture of soft dumbbells, each subject to an active propulsion force and thermal fluctuations, shows a sudden arrest, first to a translational then to a rotational glass, as one reduces temperature $T$ or the…
We use large-scale molecular dynamics simulations to study the kinetics of the liquid-gas phase separation if the temperature is lowered across the glass transition of the dense phase. We observe a gradual change from phase separated…
The presence of dynamical heterogeneities, i.e. nanometer-scale regions containing molecules rearranging cooperatively at very different rates compared to the bulk, is increasingly being recognized as crucial in our understanding of the…
We here discuss the results of 3d MonteCarlo simulations of a minimal lattice model for gelling systems. We focus on the dynamics, investigated by means of the time autocorrelation function of the density fluctuations and the particle mean…
A density functional theory for colloidal dynamics is presented which includes hydrodynamic interactions between the colloidal particles. The theory is applied to the dynamics of colloidal particles in an optical trap which switches…
Measuring, characterizing and modelling the slow dynamics of glassy soft matter is a great challenge, with an impact that ranges from industrial applications to fundamental issues in modern statistical physics, such as the glass transition…
We report on a new type of experiment that enables us to monitor spatially and temporally heterogeneous dynamic properties in complex fluids. Our approach is based on the analysis of near-field speckles produced by light diffusely reflected…
Understanding glass formation is a challenge because the existence of a true glass state, distinct from liquid and solid, remains elusive: Glasses are liquids that have become too viscous to flow. An old idea, as yet unproven…
Vitrification in colloidal systems typically occurs at high densities driven by sharply varying, short-ranged interactions. The possibility of glassy behavior arising from smoothly varying, long-ranged particle interactions has received…
We analyze a simple dynamical model of glasses, based on the idea that each particle is trapped in a local potential well, which itself evolves due to hopping of neighbouring particles. The glass transition is signalled by the fact that the…
The interrelation of dynamic processes active on separated time-scales in glasses and viscous liquids is investigated using a model displaying two time-scale bifurcations both between fast and secondary relaxation and between secondary and…
We will review some of the theoretical progresses that have been recently done in the study of slow dynamics of glassy systems: the general techniques used for studying the dynamics in the mean field approximation and the emergence of a…
Colloidal mixtures represent a versatile model system to study transport in complex environments. They allow for a systematic variation of the control parameters, namely size ratio, total volume fraction and composition. We study the…
We use confocal microscopy to study the motions of particles in concentrated colloidal systems. Near the glass transition, diffusive motion is inhibited, as particles spend time trapped in transient ``cages'' formed by neighboring…
Dense soft glasses show strong collective caging behavior at sufficiently low temperatures. Using molecular dynamics simulations of a model glass former, we show that the incorporation of activity or self-propulsion, f0, can induce cage…
A new theory for dynamics of concentrated colloidal suspensions and the colloidal glass transition is proposed. The starting point is the memory function representation of the density correlation function. The memory function can be…
Previous theoretical, along with early simulation and experimental, studies have indicated that particles with a short-ranged attraction exhibit a range of new dynamical arrest phenomena. These include very pronounced reentrance in the…