1999/09/07 by Sharon C. Glotzer, S. C. Glotzer, Glotzer, S. C. +4
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn) #FOS: Physical sciences #Material Dynamics and Properties #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #cond-mat.dis-nn #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech #nanoparticles nucleation surface interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/9909113
References updated. Inset added to Figure 3
openalex publication_date 1999/09/07 · arxiv created 1999/10/14 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Dynamical heterogeneity and the decoupling of diffusion and structural relaxation in a supercooled liquid is investigated in terms of a time-dependent, fourth-order density correlation function. The generalized susceptibility χ4(t) corresponding to this correlation function has a maximum at an intermediate time t4^*, and both t4^* and χ4(t4^*) grow strongly with decreasing temperature. We show that the main contribution to χ4(t) arises from spatial correlations between temporarily localized (``caged'') particles. We compare χ4(t) with a generalized susceptibility χM(t) related to a correlation function of squared particle displacements, and show that while t4^* is roughly proportional to the α-relaxation time, tM^* is proportional to the inverse of the self-diffusion coefficient.