Connections between structural "jamming", local metabasin features and relaxation dynamics in supercooled glassy liquids

M.A. FRECHERO; L. M. ALARCON; E. P. SCHULZ; G. A. APPIGNANESI

PHYSICAL REVIEW E - STATISTICAL PHYSICS, PLASMAS, FLUIDS AND RELATED INTERDISCIPLINARY TOPICS

American Physical Society

Lugar: Ridge, NY (Estados Unidos); Año: 2006

1063-651X

Dynamics in glass-forming liquids in the supercooled regime vary considerably from one point of the sample to another suggesting the existence of regions with different degrees of jamming. In fact, the existence of relatively compact regions with particles with an enhaced propensity for motion has been detected in model glassy systems. In turn, the structural relaxation has been shown to be accomplished by means of series of fast transitions between metabasins in the potential energy landscape involving the collective motion of a substancial number of particles arranged in relatively compact clusters (democratic cluster or d-clusters). In this work we shall complete this picture by identifying the connections between local structural jamming, metabasin confining strength and d-clusters. Thus, we shall demonstrate the degree of jamming of the local structure dictates the confining strength of the local metabasin and the local high propensity regions and the d-clusters are not only similar in nature but that they share a significant amount of particles.