Growing static and dynamic length scales in a glass-forming liquid

TL;DR

This study explores how static and dynamic length scales evolve in a glass-forming liquid, revealing that structural length saturates due to frustration while dynamic correlations continue to grow as temperature decreases.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using negatively curved space to distinguish static and dynamic length scales in glass formation.

Findings

Structural and dynamic length scales grow together with decreasing temperature.

Structural length saturates due to frustration, but dynamic correlations keep increasing.

Provides insight into the structural origins of glass transition phenomena.

Abstract

We investigate the characteristic length scales associated with the glass transition phenomenon. By studying an atomic glass-forming liquid in negatively curved space, for which the local order is well identified and the amount of frustration opposing the spatial extension of this order is tunable, we provide insight into the structural origin of the main characteristics of the dynamics leading to glass formation. We find that the structural length and the correlation length characterizing the increasing heterogeneity of the dynamics grow together as temperature decreases. However, the system eventually enters a regime in which the former saturates as a result of frustration whereas dynamic correlations keep building up.