Liquid-glass transition of confined fluids: Some insights from a mode-coupling theory

TL;DR

This paper extends mode-coupling theory to confined glass-forming liquids, revealing that density correlations decay to a non-zero value even in the fluid state, providing insights into structure-dynamics relations under confinement.

Contribution

It introduces an extension of mode-coupling theory for confined fluids, explaining persistent correlations and clarifying structure-dynamics relationships in such systems.

Findings

Density correlation functions decay to a non-zero value in confinement.

The theory explains the persistent dynamics in confined glass-formers.

Insights into the structure-dynamics relation in confined fluids.

Abstract

The dynamics of confined glassforming liquids is discussed on the basis of the recent extension of the mode coupling theory for the liquid-glass transition to the model of the quenched-annealed binary mixture. It is in particular shown that, in confinement, the density correlation functions always decay to a non-zero infinite time value, even in the fluid state, and some clarification is given about the question of the relation between structure and dynamics in confined fluids.