3,438 research outputs found
Potential energy topology and relaxation processes in a model glass
We use computer simulation to investigate the topology of the potential
energy and to search for doublewell potential's (DWP) in a
model glass . By a sequence of Newtonian and dissipative dynamics we find
different minima of and the energy profile along the least
action paths joining them. At variance with previous suggestions, we find that
the parameters describing the DWP's are correlated among each others. Moreover,
the trajectory of the system in the 3-d configurational phase space follows
a quasi-1-d manifold. The motion parallel to the path is characterized by jumps
between minima, and is nearly uncorrelated from the orthogonal, harmonic,
dynamics.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, 4 PostScript figure
Relaxation processes in harmonic glasses?
A relaxation process, with the associated phenomenology of sound attenuation
and sound velocity dispersion, is found in a simulated harmonic Lennard-Jones
glass. We propose to identify this process with the so called microscopic (or
instantaneous) relaxation process observed in real glasses and supercooled
liquids. A model based on the memory function approach accounts for the
observation, and allows to relate to each others: 1) the characteristic time
and strength of this process, 2) the low frequency limit of the dynamic
structure factor of the glass, and 3) the high frequency sound attenuation
coefficient, with its observed quadratic dependence on the momentum transfer.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
Frustration and sound attenuation in structural glasses
Three classes of harmonic disorder systems (Lennard-Jones like glasses,
percolators above threshold, and spring disordered lattices) have been
numerically investigated in order to clarify the effect of different types of
disorder on the mechanism of high frequency sound attenuation. We introduce the
concept of frustration in structural glasses as a measure of the internal
stress, and find a strong correlation between the degree of frustration and the
exponent alpha that characterizes the momentum dependence of the sound
attenuation . In particular, alpha decreases from
about d+1 in low-frustration systems (where d is the spectral dimension), to
about 2 for high frustration systems like the realistic glasses examined.Comment: Revtex, 4 pages including 4 figure
Connected Network of Minima as a Model Glass: Long Time Dynamics
A simple model to investigate the long time dynamics of glass-formers is
presented and applied to study a Lennard-Jones system in supercooled and glassy
phases. According to our model, the point representing the system in the
configurational phase space performs harmonic vibrations around (and activated
jumps between) minima pertaining to a connected network. Exploiting the model,
in agreement with the experimental results, we find evidence for: i) stretched
relaxational dynamics; ii) a strong T-dependence of the stretching parameter;
iii) breakdown of the Stokes-Einstein law.Comment: 4 pages (Latex), 4 eps figure
The Raman coupling function in amorphous silica and the nature of the long wavelength excitations in disordered systems
New Raman and incoherent neutron scattering data at various temperatures and
molecular dynamic simulations in amorphous silica, are compared to obtain the
Raman coupling coefficient and, in particular, its low frequency
limit. This study indicates that in the limit
extrapolates to a non vanishing value, giving important indications on the
characteristics of the vibrational modes in disordered materials; in particular
our results indicate that even in the limit of very long wavelength the local
disorder implies non-regular local atomic displacements.Comment: Revtex, 4 ps figure
Elastic constant dishomogeneity and dependence of the broadening of the dynamical structure factor in disordered systems
We propose an explanation for the quadratic dependence on the momentum ,
of the broadening of the acoustic excitation peak recently found in the study
of the dynamic structure factor of many real and simulated glasses. We ascribe
the observed law to the spatial fluctuations of the local wavelength of
the collective vibrational modes, in turn produced by the dishomegeneity of the
inter-particle elastic constants. This explanation is analitically shown to
hold for 1-dimensional disordered chains and satisfatorily numerically tested
in both 1 and 3 dimensions.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, 5 postscript figure
Potential Energy Landscape and Long Time Dynamics in a Simple Model Glass
We analyze the properties of a Lennard-Jones system at the level of the
potential energy landscape. After an exhaustive investigation of the
topological features of the landscape of the systems, obtained studying small
size sample, we describe the dynamics of the systems in the multi-dimensional
configurational space by a simple model. This consider the configurational
space as a connected network of minima where the dynamics proceeds by jumps
described by an appropriate master equation. Using this model we are able to
reproduce the long time dynamics and the low temperature regime. We investigate
both the equilibrium regime and the off-equilibrium one, finding those typical
glassy behavior usually observed in the experiments such as: {\it i)} stretched
exponential relaxation, {\it ii)} temperature-dependent stretching parameter,
{\it iii)} breakdown of the Stokes-Einstein relation, and {\it iv)} appearance
of a critical temperature below which one observes deviation from the
fluctuation-dissipation relation as consequence of the lack of equilibrium in
the system.Comment: 11 pages (Latex), 9 ps figure
Evidence of short time dynamical correlations in simple liquids
We report a molecular dynamics (MD) study of the collective dynamics of a
simple monatomic liquid -interacting through a two body potential that mimics
that of lithium- across the liquid-glass transition. In the glassy phase we
find evidences of a fast relaxation process similar to that recently found in
Lennard-Jones glasses. The origin of this process is ascribed to the
topological disorder, i.e. to the dephasing of the different momentum
Fourier components of the actual normal modes of vibration of the disordered
structure. More important, we find that the fast relaxation persists in the
liquid phase with almost no temperature dependence of its characteristic
parameters (strength and relaxation time). We conclude, therefore, that in the
liquid phase well above the melting point, at variance with the usual
assumption of {\it un-correlated} binary collisions, the short time particles
motion is strongly {\it correlated} and can be described via a normal mode
expansion of the atomic dynamics.Comment: 7 pages, 7 .eps figs. To appear in Phys. Rev.
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