Aging of a Homogeneously Quenched Colloidal Glass-forming Liquid

TL;DR

This paper uses a theoretical approach to model the aging process in a colloidal glass-forming liquid after a sudden quench, showing good agreement with simulation data.

Contribution

It applies a non-equilibrium Langevin equation theory to describe aging in a colloidal glass, incorporating evolving structure factors and dynamics.

Findings

Numerical results match simulation data well.

The model captures irreversible evolution of structure and dynamics.

Aging process characterized by structural arrest over time.

Abstract

The non-equilibrium self-consistent generalized Langevin equation theory of colloid dynamics is used to describe the non-stationary aging processes occurring in a suddenly quenched model colloidal liquid with hard-sphere plus short-ranged attractive interactions, whose static structure factor and van Hove function evolve irreversibly from the initial conditions before the quench to a final, dynamically arrested state. The comparison of our numerical results with available simulation data are highly encouraging.