From coupled elementary units to the complexity of the glass transition

Supercooled liquids display fascinating properties upon cooling such as the emergence of dynamic length scales. Different models strongly vary with respect to the choice of the elementary subsystems as well as their mutual coupling. Here we show via computer simulations of a glass former that both i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2010-09, Vol.105 (11), p.117801-117801, Article 117801
Main Authors: Rehwald, Christian, Rubner, Oliver, Heuer, Andreas
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Supercooled liquids display fascinating properties upon cooling such as the emergence of dynamic length scales. Different models strongly vary with respect to the choice of the elementary subsystems as well as their mutual coupling. Here we show via computer simulations of a glass former that both ingredients can be identified via analysis of finite-size effects within the continuous-time random walk framework. The subsystems already contain complete information about thermodynamics and diffusivity, whereas the coupling determines structural relaxation and the emergence of dynamic length scales.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.117801