Local dynamical heterogeneity in glass formers
Abstract
We study the local dynamical fluctuations in glass-forming models of
particles embedded in $d$-dimensional space, in the mean-field limit of
$d\to\infty$. Our analytical calculation reveals that single-particle
observables, such as squared particle displacements, display divergent
fluctuations around the dynamical (or mode-coupling) transition, due to the
emergence of nontrivial correlations between displacements along different
directions. This effect notably gives rise to a divergent non-Gaussian
parameter, $\alpha_2$. The $d\to\infty$ local dynamics therefore becomes quite
rich upon approaching the glass transition. The finite-$d$ remnant of this
phenomenon further provides a long sought-after, first-principle explanation
for the growth of $\alpha_2$ around the glass transition that is \emph{not
based on multi-particle correlations}.
Type
Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/24991Collections
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Patrick Charbonneau
Professor of Chemistry
Professor Charbonneau studies soft matter. His work combines theory and simulation
to understand the glass problem, protein crystallization, microphase formation, and colloidal
assembly in external fields.

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