Collective relaxation dynamics in a three-dimensional lattice glass model

TL;DR

This study uses numerical simulations to explore how microscopic particle interactions and mobile clusters influence the slow relaxation dynamics in a 3D lattice glass model, revealing heterogeneity and thermodynamic coupling.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the microscopic relaxation mechanisms and the role of mobile clusters in a 3D lattice glass model near the glass transition.

Findings

Mobile clusters trigger relaxation at low temperatures.

Heterogeneous dynamics are linked to thermodynamic fluctuations.

Results align with some theoretical models and atomistic simulations.

Abstract

We numerically elucidate the microscopic mechanisms controlling the relaxation dynamics of a three-dimensional lattice glass model that has static properties compatible with the approach to a random first-order transition. At low temperatures, the relaxation is triggered by a small population of particles with low-energy barriers forming mobile clusters. These emerging quasiparticles act as facilitating defects responsible for the spatially heterogeneous dynamics of the system, whose characteristic lengthscales remain strongly coupled to thermodynamic fluctuations. We compare our findings both with existing theoretical models and atomistic simulations of glass-formers.