Mosaic multi-state scenario vs. one-state description of supercooled liquids

TL;DR

This study tests the mosaic scenario in supercooled liquids through numerical simulations, finding no clear evidence for it and suggesting the dominance of a single liquid state, while observing a growing static correlation length.

Contribution

The paper provides numerical evidence challenging the mosaic scenario and introduces the observation of a separate growing static correlation length in supercooled liquids.

Findings

No clear evidence of the mosaic scenario was observed.

Results are compatible with a single liquid state.

A growing static correlation length was identified.

Abstract

According to the mosaic scenario, relaxation in supercooled liquids is ruled by two competing mechanisms: surface tension, opposing the creation of local excitations, and entropy, providing the drive to the configurational rearrangement of a given region. We test this scenario through numerical simulations well below the Mode Coupling temperature. For an equilibrated configuration, we freeze all the particles outside a sphere and study the thermodynamics of this sphere. The frozen environment acts as a pinning field. Measuring the overlap between the unpinned and pinned equilibrium configurations of the sphere, we can see whether it has switched to a different state. We do not find any clear evidence of the mosaic scenario. Rather, our results seem compatible with the existence of a single (liquid) state. However, we find evidence of a growing static correlation length, apparently unrelated to the mosaic one.