235 research outputs found

    Time Resolved Correlation measurements of temporally heterogeneous dynamics

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    Time Resolved Correlation (TRC) is a recently introduced light scattering technique that allows to detect and quantify dynamic heterogeneities. The technique is based on the analysis of the temporal evolution of the speckle pattern generated by the light scattered by a sample, which is quantified by c_I(t,τ)c\_I(t,\tau), the degree of correlation between speckle images recorded at time tt and t+τt+\tau. Heterogeneous dynamics results in significant fluctuations of c_I(t,τ)c\_I(t,\tau) with time tt. We describe how to optimize TRC measurements and how to detect and avoid possible artifacts. The statistical properties of the fluctuations of c_Ic\_I are analyzed by studying their variance, probability distribution function, and time autocorrelation function. We show that these quantities are affected by a noise contribution due to the finite number NN of detected speckles. We propose and demonstrate a method to correct for the noise contribution, based on a N→∞N\to \infty extrapolation scheme. Examples from both homogeneous and heterogeneous dynamics are provided. Connections with recent numerical and analytical works on heterogeneous glassy dynamics are briefly discussed.Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures. Submitted to PR

    Aging in Dense Colloids as Diffusion in the Logarithm of Time

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    The far-from-equilibrium dynamics of glassy systems share important phenomenological traits. A transition is generally observed from a time-homogeneous dynamical regime to an aging regime where physical changes occur intermittently and, on average, at a decreasing rate. It has been suggested that a global change of the independent time variable to its logarithm may render the aging dynamics homogeneous: for colloids, this entails diffusion but on a logarithmic time scale. Our novel analysis of experimental colloid data confirms that the mean square displacement grows linearly in time at low densities and shows that it grows linearly in the logarithm of time at high densities. Correspondingly, pairs of particles initially in close contact survive as pairs with a probability which decays exponentially in either time or its logarithm. The form of the Probability Density Function of the displacements shows that long-ranged spatial correlations are very long-lived in dense colloids. A phenomenological stochastic model is then introduced which relies on the growth and collapse of strongly correlated clusters ("dynamic heterogeneity"), and which reproduces the full spectrum of observed colloidal behaviors depending on the form assumed for the probability that a cluster collapses during a Monte Carlo update. In the limit where large clusters dominate, the collapse rate is ~1/t, implying a homogeneous, log-Poissonian process that qualitatively reproduces the experimental results for dense colloids. Finally an analytical toy-model is discussed to elucidate the strong dependence of the simulation results on the integrability (or lack thereof) of the cluster collapse probability function.Comment: 6 pages, extensively revised, final version; for related work, see http://www.physics.emory.edu/faculty/boettcher/ or http://www.fysik.sdu.dk/staff/staff-vip/pas-personal.htm

    The Physics of the Colloidal Glass Transition

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    As one increases the concentration of a colloidal suspension, the system exhibits a dramatic increase in viscosity. Structurally, the system resembles a liquid, yet motions within the suspension are slow enough that it can be considered essentially frozen. This kinetic arrest is the colloidal glass transition. For several decades, colloids have served as a valuable model system for understanding the glass transition in molecular systems. The spatial and temporal scales involved allow these systems to be studied by a wide variety of experimental techniques. The focus of this review is the current state of understanding of the colloidal glass transition. A brief introduction is given to important experimental techniques used to study the glass transition in colloids. We describe features of colloidal systems near and in glassy states, including tremendous increases in viscosity and relaxation times, dynamical heterogeneity, and ageing, among others. We also compare and contrast the glass transition in colloids to that in molecular liquids. Other glassy systems are briefly discussed, as well as recently developed synthesis techniques that will keep these systems rich with interesting physics for years to come.Comment: 56 pages, 18 figures, Revie

    Tracing the Evolution of Temperature in Near Fermi Energy Heavy Ion Collisions

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    The kinetic energy variation of emitted light clusters has been employed as a clock to explore the time evolution of the temperature for thermalizing composite systems produced in the reactions of 26A, 35A and 47A MeV 64^{64}Zn with 58^{58}Ni, 92^{92}Mo and 197^{197}Au. For each system investigated, the double isotope ratio temperature curve exhibits a high maximum apparent temperature, in the range of 10-25 MeV, at high ejectile velocity. These maximum values increase with increasing projectile energy and decrease with increasing target mass. The time at which the maximum in the temperature curve is reached ranges from 80 to 130 fm/c after contact. For each different target, the subsequent cooling curves for all three projectile energies are quite similar. Temperatures comparable to those of limiting temperature systematics are reached 30 to 40 fm/c after the times corresponding to the maxima, at a time when AMD-V transport model calculations predict entry into the final evaporative or fragmentation stage of de-excitation of the hot composite systems. Evidence for the establishment of thermal and chemical equilibrium is discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

    A Ghoshal-like Test of Equilibration in Near-Fermi-Energy Heavy Ion Collisions

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    Calorimetric and coalescence techniques have been employed to probe equilibration for hot nuclei produced in heavy ion collisions of 35 to 55 MeV/u projectiles with medium mass targets. Entrance channel mass asymmetries and energies were selected in order that very hot composite nuclei of similar mass and excitation would remain after early stage pre-equilibrium particle emission. Inter-comparison of the properties and de-excitation patterns for these different systems provides evidence for the production of hot nuclei with decay patterns relatively independent of the specific entrance channel.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

    Properties of the Initial Participant Matter Interaction Zone in Near Fermi-Energy Heavy Ion Collisions

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    The sizes, temperatures and free neutron to proton ratios of the initial interaction zones produced in the collisions of 40 MeV/nucleon 40^{40}Ar + 112^{112}Sn and 55 MeV/nucleon27^{27}Al + 124^{124}Sn are derived using total detected neutron plus charged particle multiplicity as a measure of the impact parameter range and number of participant nucleons. The size of the initial interaction zone, determined from a coalescence model analysis, increases significantly with decreasing impact parameter. The temperatures and free neutron to proton ratios in the interaction zones are relatively similar for different impact parameter ranges and evolve in a similar fashion.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure
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