Static lengths in glass-forming monodisperse hard-sphere fluids from periodic array pinning.

Abstract

We explore the static length in glass-forming hard-sphere liquids revealed by the response of dynamical properties (diffusion coefficient D and α relaxation time τα) to a regular array of pinned particles. By assuming a universal scaling form, we find data can be excellently collapsed onto a master curve, from which relative length scales can be extracted. By exploiting a crystal-avoiding simulation method that suppresses crystallization while preserving dynamics, we can study monodisperse as well as polydisperse systems. The static length obtained from dynamical property Q (τα and D) scales as log Q ∼ ξ, with ψ ≈ 1.