Time and length scales in supercooled liquids

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the growth of spatial mobility correlations in supercooled liquids explains the decoupling of transport properties as temperature decreases, emphasizing the importance of spatial descriptions in glass formation.

Contribution

It provides the first quantitative evidence linking spatial mobility correlations to transport decoupling in supercooled liquids, challenging existing theories.

Findings

Spatial correlations of mobility grow as temperature decreases

Decoupling of transport properties is driven by these correlations

Supports spatially-based theories of glass formation

Abstract

We numerically obtain the first quantitative demonstration that development of spatial correlations of mobility as temperature is lowered is responsible for the ``decoupling'' of transport properties of supercooled liquids. This result further demonstrates the necessity of a spatial description of the glass formation and therefore seriously challenges a number of popular alternative theoretical descriptions.