Structural covariance in the hard sphere fluid

Isomorphs in nanoconfined liquids

We study in this paper the possible existence of Roskilde-simple liquids and their isomorphs in a rough-wall nanoconfinement. Isomorphs are curves in the thermodynamic phase diagram along which structure and dynamics are invariant in suitable nondimensionalized units. Two model liquids using molecular dynamics computer simulations are considered: the single-component Lennard-Jones (LJ) liquid and the Kob-Andersen binary LJ mixture, both of which in the bulk phases are known to have good isomorphs. Nanoconfinement is implemented by adopting a slit-pore geometry with fcc crystalline walls; this implies inhomogenous density profiles both parallel and perpendicular to the confining walls. Despite this fact and consistent with an earlier study [Ingebrigtsen et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 2013, 111, 235901] we find that these two nanoconfined liquids have isomorphs to a good approximation. More specifically, we show good invariance along the isomorphs of inhomogenous density profiles, mean-square displacements, and higher-order structures probed using the topological cluster classification algorithm. Our study thus provides an alternative framework for understanding nanoconfined liquids.

Slowing down supercooled liquids by manipulating their local structure

Glasses remain an elusive and poorly understood state of matter. It is not clear how we can control the macroscopic dynamics of glassy systems by tuning the properties of their microscopic building blocks. In this paper, we propose a simple directional colloidal model that reinforces the optimal icosahedral local structure of binary hard-sphere glasses. We show that this specific symmetry results in a dramatic slowing down of the dynamics. Our results open the door to controlling the dynamics of dense glassy systems by selectively promoting specific local structural environments.