Is there a reentrant glass in binary mixtures?

TL;DR

This study uses computer simulations to explore conditions under which a reentrant glass transition occurs in binary mixtures, revealing that it depends on the mobility ratio of the components.

Contribution

It demonstrates that reentrant glass transitions depend on the mobility ratio and confirms theoretical predictions with simulation results.

Findings

Reentrant glass transition occurs only when the mobility ratio is sufficiently small.

No reentrant glass transition is observed for mobility ratio close to one.

Effective one-component mode coupling theory reproduces the reentrant glass for small mobility ratios.

Abstract

By employing computer simulations for a model binary mixture, we show that a reentrant glass transition upon adding a second component only occurs if the ratio $\alpha$ of the short-time mobilities between the glass-forming component and the additive is sufficiently small. For $\alpha \approx 1$, there is no reentrant glass, even if the size asymmetry between the two components is large, in accordance with two-component mode coupling theory. For $\alpha \ll 1$, on the other hand, the reentrant glass is observed and reproduced only by an effective one-component mode coupling theory.