Numerical Investigation of Glassy Dynamics in Low Density Systems

TL;DR

This study explores glassy dynamics in low-density colloidal systems with long-range interactions, revealing glass-like behavior similar to high-density systems but with distinct quantitative features.

Contribution

It demonstrates for the first time that low-density, long-range interacting particles can exhibit glassy properties, expanding understanding beyond traditional high-density models.

Findings

Low-density systems show glassy behavior at low temperatures.

Glass transition features resemble those of hard-sphere systems.

Quantitative differences can be explained by microscopic theory.

Abstract

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 relatively little attention. Here we investigate the behavior of screened charged particles, and explicitly demonstrate that these systems exhibit glassy properties in the regime of low temperature and low density. Properties close to this low density (Wigner) glass transition share many features with their hard-sphere counterparts, but differ in quantitative aspects that may be accounted for via microscopic theoretical considerations.