The central role of thermal collective strain in the relaxation of structure in a supercooled liquid

Abstract

The spatial distribution of structural relaxation in a supercooled liquid is studied using molecular dynamics simulations of a 2D binary mixture. It is shown that the spatial heterogeneity of the relaxation along with the time scale of the relaxation is determined, not by the frequency with which particles move a distance pi/2kBragg, but by the frequency with which particles can achieve persistent displacements. We show that these persistent displacements are achieved through the coupled action of local reorganizations and unrecoverable thermal strains.

23 pages, 9 figures, expanded discussion, additional references

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Avalanches and Dynamical Correlations in supercooled liquids
• Excitations are localized and relaxation is hierarchical in glass-forming liquids
• Replica theory of the rigidity of structural glasses
• Solid-that-flows picture of glass-forming liquids
• Elastoplasticity Mediates Dynamical Heterogeneity Below the Mode-Coupling Temperature
• Relevance of Shear Transformations in the Relaxation of Supercooled Liquids
• Manifestations of Dynamical Facilitation in Glassy Materials
• Identifying structural signatures of shear banding in model polymer nanopillars