2002/06/08 by Francis W. Starr, Srikanth Sastry, Jack F. Douglas +1 · 3 citations
Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Condensed matter physics #Constant (computer programming) #Geometry #Glass properties and applications #Material Dynamics and Properties #Materials science #Mathematics #Neutron scattering #Optics #Physics #Relaxation (psychology) #Scattering #Theoretical and Computational Physics #Thermodynamics #Volume (thermodynamics) #Voronoi diagram #cond-mat
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.89.125501
arxiv created 2002/06/08 · openalex publication_date 2002/08/28 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We examine the local geometry of a simulated glass-forming polymer melt. Using the Voronoi construction, we find that the distributions of Voronoi volume P(v(V)) and asphericity P(a) appear to be universal properties of dense liquids, supporting the use of packing approaches to understand liquid properties. We also calculate the average free volume <v(f)> along a path of constant density and find that <v(f)> extrapolates to zero at the same temperature T0 that the extrapolated relaxation time diverges. We relate <v(f)> to the Debye-Waller factor, which is measurable by neutron scattering.