Glassy dynamics of dense particle assemblies on a spherical substrate

TL;DR

This study uses Molecular Dynamics simulations to explore how dense particle assemblies on spherical surfaces exhibit glassy behavior, structural frustration, and defect dynamics as temperature and curvature vary.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the interplay between curvature-induced frustration, topological defects, and glassy dynamics in spherical particle assemblies.

Findings

Dynamics become glassy at low temperatures.

Dynamical heterogeneity emerges with slowdown.

Topological defects influence structure and dynamics.

Abstract

We study by Molecular Dynamics simulation a dense one-component system of particles confined on a spherical substrate. We more specifically investigate the evolution of the structural and dynamical properties of the system when changing the control parameters, the temperature and the curvature of the substrate. We find that the dynamics becomes glassy at low temperature, with a strong slowdown of the relaxation and the emergence of dynamical heterogeneity. The prevalent local $6$-fold order is frustrated by curvature and we analyze in detail the role of the topological defects in the statics and the dynamics of the particle assembly.