161 research outputs found
Universal Scaling in the Aging of the Strong Glass Former SiO
We show that the aging dynamics of a strong glass former displays a
strikingly simple scaling behavior, connecting the average dynamics with its
fluctuations, namely the dynamical heterogeneities. We perform molecular
dynamics simulations of SiO with BKS interactions, quenching the system
from high to low temperature, and study the evolution of the system as a
function of the waiting time measured from the instant of the
quench. We find that both the aging behavior of the dynamic susceptibility
and the aging behavior of the probability distribution of the local incoherent intermediate scattering function
can be described by simple scaling forms in terms of
the global incoherent intermediate scattering function . The scaling forms
are the same that have been found to describe the aging of several fragile
glass formers and that, in the case of , have been
also predicted theoretically. A thorough study of the length scales involved
highlights the importance of intermediate length scales. We also analyze
directly the scaling dependence on particle type and on wavevector , and
find that both the average and the fluctuations of the slow aging dynamics are
controlled by a unique aging clock, which is not only independent of the
wavevector , but is the same for O and Si atoms.Comment: 13 pages, 21 figures (postscript
Single-Species Three-Particle Reactions in One Dimension
Renormalization group calculations for fluctuation-dominated
reaction-diffusion systems are generally in agreement with simulations and
exact solutions. However, simulations of the single-species reactions
3A->(0,A,2A) at their upper critical dimension d_c=1 have found asymptotic
densities argued to be inconsistent with renormalization group predictions. We
show that this discrepancy is resolved by inclusion of the leading corrections
to scaling, which we derive explicitly and show to be universal, a property not
shared by the A+A->(0,A) reactions. Finally, we demonstrate that two previous
Smoluchowski approaches to this problem reduce, with various corrections, to a
single theory which yields, surprisingly, the same asymptotic density as the
renormalization group.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figs, minor correction
Aging to Equilibrium Dynamics of SiO2
Molecular dynamics computer simulations are used to study the aging dynamics
of SiO2 (modeled by the BKS model). Starting from fully equilibrated
configurations at high temperatures T_i =5000K/3760K the system is quenched to
lower temperatures T_f=2500K, 2750K, 3000K, 3250K and observed after a waiting
time t_w. Since the simulation runs are long enough to reach equilibrium at
T_f, we are able to study the transition from out-of-equilibrium to equilibrium
dynamics. We present results for the partial structure factors, for the
generalized incoherent intermediate scattering function C_q(t_w, t_w+t), and
for the mean square displacement msd(t_w,t_w+t). We conclude that there are
three different t_w regions: (I) At very short waiting times, C_q(t_w, t_w+t)
decays very fast without forming a plateau. Similarly msd(t_w,t_w+t) increases
without forming a plateau. (II) With increasing t_w a plateau develops in
C_q(t_w, t_w+t) and msd(t_w,t_w+t). For intermediate waiting times the plateau
height is independent of t_w and T_i. Time superposition applies, i.e.
C_q=C_q(t/t_r) where t_r=t_r(t_w) is a waiting time dependent decay time.
Furthermore C_q=C(q,t_w,t_w+t) scales as C_q=C(q,z(t_w,t) where z is a function
of t_w and t only, i.e. independent of q. (III) At large t_w the system reaches
equilibrium, i.e. C_q(t_w,t_w+t) and msd(t_w,t_w+t) are independent of t_w and
T_i. For C_q(t_w,t_w+t) we find that the time superposition of intermediate
waiting times (II) includes the equilibrium curve (III).Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, submission to PR
Fully Frustrated Ising System on a 3D Simple Cubic Lattice: Revisited
Using extensive Monte Carlo simulations, we clarify the critical behaviour of
the 3 dimensional simple cubic Ising Fully Frustrated system. We find two
transition temperatures and two long range ordered phases. Within the present
numerical accuracy, the transition at higher temperature is found to be second
order and we have extracted the standard critical exponent using finite size
scaling method. On the other hand, the transition at lower temperature is found
to be first order. It is argued that entropy plays a major role on determining
the low temperature state.Comment: 14 pages 14 figures iop style include
Inequivalence of ensembles in a system with long range interactions
We study the global phase diagram of the infinite range Blume-Emery-Griffiths
model both in the canonical and in the microcanonical ensembles. The canonical
phase diagram is known to exhibit first order and continuous transition lines
separated by a tricritical point. We find that below the tricritical point,
when the canonical transition is first order, the phase diagrams of the two
ensembles disagree. In this region the microcanonical ensemble exhibits energy
ranges with negative specific heat and temperature jumps at transition
energies. These results can be extended to weakly decaying nonintegrable
interactions.Comment: Revtex, 4 pages with 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett., e-mail
[email protected]
The electronic structure of amorphous silica: A numerical study
We present a computational study of the electronic properties of amorphous
SiO2. The ionic configurations used are the ones generated by an earlier
molecular dynamics simulations in which the system was cooled with different
cooling rates from the liquid state to a glass, thus giving access to
glass-like configurations with different degrees of disorder [Phys. Rev. B 54,
15808 (1996)]. The electronic structure is described by a tight-binding
Hamiltonian. We study the influence of the degree of disorder on the density of
states, the localization properties, the optical absorption, the nature of
defects within the mobility gap, and on the fluctuations of the Madelung
potential, where the disorder manifests itself most prominently. The
experimentally observed mismatch between a photoconductivity threshold of 9 eV
and the onset of the optical absorption around 7 eV is interpreted by the
picture of eigenstates localized by potential energy fluctuations in a mobility
gap of approximately 9 eV and a density of states that exhibits valence and
conduction band tails which are, even in the absence of defects, deeply located
within the former band gap.Comment: 21 pages of Latex, 5 eps figure
Diffusion and jump-length distribution in liquid and amorphous CuZr
Using molecular dynamics simulation, we calculate the distribution of atomic
jum ps in CuZr in the liquid and glassy states. In both states
the distribution of jump lengths can be described by a temperature independent
exponential of the length and an effective activation energy plus a
contribution of elastic displacements at short distances. Upon cooling the
contribution of shorter jumps dominates. No indication of an enhanced
probability to jump over a nearest neighbor distance was found. We find a
smooth transition from flow in the liquid to jumps in the g lass. The
correlation factor of the diffusion constant decreases with decreasing
temperature, causing a drop of diffusion below the Arrhenius value, despite an
apparent Arrhenius law for the jump probability
The Debye-Waller factor of liquid silica: Theory and simulation
We show that the prediction of mode-coupling theory for a model of a
network-forming strong glass-former correctly describes the wave-vector
dependence of the Debye-Waller factor. To obtain a good description it is
important to take into account the triplet correlation function c_3, which we
evaluate from a computer simulation. Our results support the possibility that
this theory is able to accurately describe the non-ergodicity parameters of
simple as well as of network-forming liquids.Comment: 5 pages of Latex, 3 figure
Percolation Threshold, Fisher Exponent, and Shortest Path Exponent for 4 and 5 Dimensions
We develop a method of constructing percolation clusters that allows us to
build very large clusters using very little computer memory by limiting the
maximum number of sites for which we maintain state information to a number of
the order of the number of sites in the largest chemical shell of the cluster
being created. The memory required to grow a cluster of mass s is of the order
of bytes where ranges from 0.4 for 2-dimensional lattices
to 0.5 for 6- (or higher)-dimensional lattices. We use this method to estimate
, the exponent relating the minimum path to the
Euclidean distance r, for 4D and 5D hypercubic lattices. Analyzing both site
and bond percolation, we find (4D) and
(5D). In order to determine
to high precision, and without bias, it was necessary to
first find precise values for the percolation threshold, :
(4D) and (5D) for site and
(4D) and (5D) for bond
percolation. We also calculate the Fisher exponent, , determined in the
course of calculating the values of : (4D) and
(5D)
Computer investigation of the energy landscape of amorphous silica
The multidimensional topography of the collective potential energy function
of a so-called strong glass former (silica) is analyzed by means of classical
molecular dynamics calculations. Features qualitatively similar to those of
fragile glasses are recovered at high temperatures : in particular an intrinsic
characteristic temperature K is evidenced above which the
system starts to investigate non-harmonic potential energy basins. It is shown
that the anharmonicities are essentially characterized by a roughness appearing
in the potential energy valleys explored by the system for temperatures above
.Comment: 5 pages; accepted for publication in PR
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