Static point-to-set correlations in glass-forming liquids

TL;DR

This paper investigates static point-to-set correlations in glass-forming liquids by freezing particles in equilibrium configurations, revealing static correlations distinct from dynamic heterogeneity and offering insights into the glass transition.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of static point-to-set correlations with various geometries, highlighting the significance of random pinning in studying static correlations in glass-formers.

Findings

Static correlations are detected beyond two-body correlators.

Confinement significantly slows down dynamics.

Random pinning geometry is optimal for studying static correlations.

Abstract

We analyze static point-to-set correlations in glass-forming liquids. The generic idea is to freeze the position of a set of particles in an equilibrium configuration and to perform sampling in the presence of this additional constraint. Qualitatively different geometries for the confining set of particles are considered and a detailed comparison of resulting static and dynamic correlation functions is performed. Our results reveal the existence of static spatial correlations not detected by conventional two-body correlators, which appear to be decoupled from, and shorter-ranged than, dynamical length scales characterizing dynamic heterogeneity. We find that the dynamics slows down dramatically under confinement, which suggests new ways to investigate the glass transition. Our results indicate that the geometry in which particles are randomly pinned is the best candidate to study static correlations.