# $q$-independent slow-dynamics in atomic and molecular systems

## TL;DR

This study reveals that in supercooled water and silica, the collective density correlation time becomes wavevector independent at large wavelengths, a feature not observed in all systems like Lennard-Jones mixtures.

## Contribution

It demonstrates the wavevector independence of collective density correlation times in atomic systems at large scales, linking it to slow dynamics observed in soft matter.

## Key findings

- Wavevector independence observed in supercooled water and silica.
- Lennard-Jones mixtures do not show this wavevector independence.
- The phenomenon is linked to the nature of particle diffusion and slow dynamics.

## Abstract

Investigating million-atom systems for very long simulation times, we demonstrate that the collective density-density correlation time ($\tau_{\alpha}$) in simulated supercooled water and silica becomes wavevector independent ($q^0$) when the probing wavelength is several times larger than the interparticle distance. The $q$-independence of the collective density-density correlation functions, a feature clearly observed in light-scattering studies of some soft-matter systems, is thus a genuine feature of many (but not all) slow-dynamics systems, either atomic, molecular or colloidal. Indeed, we show that when the dynamics of the density fluctuations is due to particle-type diffusion, as in the case of the Lennard Jones binary mixture model, the $q^0$ regime does not set in and the relaxation time continues to scale as $\tau_{\alpha} \sim q^{-2}$ even at small $q$.