Relaxation Rate Distributions for Supercooled Liquids

Mode-coupling theory of the glass transition for colloidal liquids in slit geometry

We provide a detailed derivation of the mode-coupling equations for a colloidal liquid confined by two parallel smooth walls. We introduce irreducible memory kernels for the different relaxation channels thereby extending the projection operator technique to colloidal liquids in slit geometry. Investigating both the collective dynamics as well as the tagged-particle motion, we prove that the mode-coupling functional assumes the same form as in the Newtonian case corroborating the universality of the glass-transition singularity with respect to the microscopic dynamics.

Continuous time random walk concepts applied to extended mode coupling theory: a study of the Stokes-Einstein breakdown

In an attempt to extend the mode coupling theory (MCT) to lower temperatures, some years back an Unified theory was proposed which within the MCT framework incorporated the activated dynamics via the random first order transition theory (RFOT). The theory successfully showed that there is hopping induced diffusive dynamics and the modified MCT coupled to the activated motion continues till low temperatures. Here we show that the theory although successful in describing other properties of supercooled liquids is unable to capture the Stokes-Einstein breakdown. We then show using continuous time random work (CTRW) formalism that the Unified theory is equivalent to a CTRW dynamics in presence of two waiting time distributions. It is known from earlier work on CTRW that in such cases the total dynamics is dominated by the fast motion. This explains the failure of the Unified theory in predicting the SE breakdown as both the structural relaxation and the diffusion process are described by the comparatively fast MCT like dynamics. The study also predicts that other forms of extended MCT with Markovian hopping kernel will face a similar issue. We next modify the Unified theory by applying the concept of renewal theory, usually used in CTRW models where the distribution has a long tail. According to this theory the first jump given by the persistent time is slower than the subsequent jumps given by the exchange time. We first show that for systems with two waiting time distributions even when both the distributions are exponential the persistent time is larger than the exchange time. We also identify the persistent time with the slower activated process. The extended Unified theory can now explain the SE breakdown. In this extended theory at low temperatures the structural relaxation is described by the activated dynamics whereas the diffusion is primarily determined by the MCT like dynamics leading to a decoupling between them. We also calculate a dynamic lengthscale from the wavenumber dependence of the relaxation time. We find that this dynamic length scale grows faster than the static length scale.

Hyperdiffusive Dynamics in Newtonian Nanoparticle Fluids

Hyperdiffusive relaxations in soft glassy materials are typically associated with out-of-equilibrium states, and nonequilibrium physics and aging are often invoked in explaining their origins. Here, we report on hyperdiffusive motion in model soft materials comprised of single-component polymer-tethered nanoparticles, which exhibit a readily accessible Newtonian flow regime. In these materials, polymer-mediated interactions lead to strong nanoparticle correlations, hyperdiffusive relaxations, and unusual variations of properties with temperature. We propose that hyperdiffusive relaxations in such materials can arise naturally from nonequilibrium or non-Brownian volume fluctuations forced by equilibrium thermal rearrangements of the particle pair orientations corresponding to equilibrated shear modes.

Anomalous transport in the crowded world of biological cells

A ubiquitous observation in cell biology is that the diffusive motion of macromolecules and organelles is anomalous, and a description simply based on the conventional diffusion equation with diffusion constants measured in dilute solution fails. This is commonly attributed to macromolecular crowding in the interior of cells and in cellular membranes, summarizing their densely packed and heterogeneous structures. The most familiar phenomenon is a sublinear, power-law increase of the mean-square displacement (MSD) as a function of the lag time, but there are other manifestations like strongly reduced and time-dependent diffusion coefficients, persistent correlations in time, non-Gaussian distributions of spatial displacements, heterogeneous diffusion and a fraction of immobile particles. After a general introduction to the statistical description of slow, anomalous transport, we summarize some widely used theoretical models: Gaussian models like fractional Brownian motion and Langevin equations for visco-elastic media, the continuous-time random walk model, and the Lorentz model describing obstructed transport in a heterogeneous environment. Particular emphasis is put on the spatio-temporal properties of the transport in terms of two-point correlation functions, dynamic scaling behaviour, and how the models are distinguished by their propagators even if the MSDs are identical. Then, we review the theory underlying commonly applied experimental techniques in the presence of anomalous transport like single-particle tracking, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP). We report on the large body of recent experimental evidence for anomalous transport in crowded biological media: in cyto- and nucleoplasm as well as in cellular membranes, complemented by in vitro experiments where a variety of model systems mimic physiological crowding conditions. Finally, computer simulations are discussed which play an important role in testing the theoretical models and corroborating the experimental findings. The review is completed by a synthesis of the theoretical and experimental progress identifying open questions for future investigation.

Direct visualization of colloidal gelation under confinement

The physical mechanism of colloidal gelation remains inadequately understood, particularly for intermediate to high volume fractions. Experiments to directly probe the complex evolution of structural and viscoelastic properties of gels have been few despite their fundamental importance in elucidating the physical mechanisms responsible for gelation. In this study, we use a home-built micron-gap rheometer combined with confocal microscopy to directly investigate the coupled structural and dynamic properties of colloidal gelation transition by spatial confinement. We observe that confinement-induced gelation proceeds by a spinodal decomposition route where strongly confined colloidal suspensions evolve into "colloid-rich" and "colloid-poor" regions; the propagation of the "colloid-rich" region in three dimensions is responsible for structural arrest and strong viscoelastic enhancement when a critical film thickness approaches 16-25 particle layers.

Energy barriers and activated dynamics in a supercooled Lennard-Jones liquid

We study the relation of the potential energy landscape (PEL) topography to relaxation dynamics of a small model glass former of Lennard-Jones type. The mechanism under investigation is the hopping between superstructures of PEL minima, called metabasins (MBs). Guided by the idea that the mean durations <tau> of visits to MBs should reflect the local PEL structure, we first derive the effective depths of MBs from dynamics, by the relation E(app)=d ln<tau>/dbeta, where beta=1/k(B)T. Second, we establish a connection of E(app) to the barriers that surround MBs. As the consequence of a rugged PEL, it turns out that escapes from MBs do not happen by single hops between PEL minima, but correspond to complicated multiminima sequences. We introduce the concept of return probabilities to the bottom of the MBs in order to judge when the attraction range of a MB has been left. The energy barriers overcome can then be identified. These turn out to be in good agreement with the effective depths E(app), calculated from dynamics. We are thus able to relate MB lifetimes to their local structure. Moreover, we can trace back the overall diffusive dynamics to the population of MBs and to their local topology, i.e., to purely thermodynamic and structural quantities. Single energy barriers are identified with the help of a new method, which accurately performs a descent along the ridge between two minima. We analyze the population of transition regions between minima, called basin borders. No indication for the mechanism of diffusion to change around the mode-coupling temperature can be found. We discuss the question whether the one-dimensional reaction paths connecting two minima are relevant for the calculation of reaction rates at the temperatures under study.

Mean-squared displacement of a molecule moving in a glassy system

The mean-squared displacement (MSD) of a hard sphere and of a dumbbell molecule consisting of two fused hard spheres immersed in a dense hard-sphere system is calculated within the mode-coupling theory for ideal liquid-glass transitions. It is proven that the velocity correlator, which is the second time derivative of the MSD, is the negative of a completely monotone function for times within the structural-relaxation regime. The MSD is found to exhibit a large time interval for structural relaxation prior to the onset of the alpha process, which cannot be described by the asymptotic formulas for the mode-coupling-theory-bifurcation dynamics. The alpha process for molecules with a large elongation is shown to exhibit an anomalously wide crossover interval between the end of the von Schweidler decay and the beginning of normal diffusion. The diffusivity of the molecule is predicted to vary nonmonotonically as a function of its elongation.