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.
Titolo: | Mosaic multistate scenario versus one-state description of supercooled liquids | |
Autori: | A., Cavagna; T., Grigera; Verrocchio, Paolo | |
Autori Unitn: | ||
Titolo del periodico: | PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS | |
Anno di pubblicazione: | 2007 | |
Codice identificativo Scopus: | 2-s2.0-34247853226 | |
Codice identificativo WOS: | WOS:000246210200065 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): | http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.187801 | |
Handle: | http://hdl.handle.net/11572/66124 | |
Appare nelle tipologie: | 03.1 Articolo su rivista (Journal article) |