Molecular Dynamics Study of Long-Lived Structures in a Fragile Glass Forming Liquid

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to explore the structure and behavior of a supercooled liquid near the glass transition, revealing long-lived clusters and potential thermodynamic instability.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the spatial heterogeneity and cluster dynamics in supercooled liquids approaching the glass transition.

Findings

Identification of long-lived clusters with scale-invariant size distribution

Evidence of spatial heterogeneity in the supercooled liquid

Similarity of properties to mean-field glass-forming fluids near spinodal

Abstract

We present molecular dynamics results for a two component, two-dimensional Lennard-Jones supercooled liquid near the glass transition. We find that the supercooled liquid is spatially heterogeneous and that there are long-lived clusters whose size distribution satisfies a scaling relation up to a cutoff. The similarity of several properties of the supercooled liquid to those of a mean-field glass-forming fluid near the spinodal suggests that the glass transition in the supercooled liquid is associated with an underlying thermodynamic instability.