Calculation of displacement correlation tensor indicating vortical cooperative motion in two-dimensional colloidal liquids

Dynamical Entanglement and Cooperative Dynamics in Entangled Solutions of Ring and Linear Polymers

Understanding how entanglements affect the behavior of polymeric complex fluids is an open challenge in many fields. To elucidate the nature and consequence of entanglements in dense polymer solutions, we propose a novel method: a "dynamical entanglement analysis" (DEA) to extract spatiotemporal entanglement structures from the pairwise displacement correlation of entangled chains. By applying this method to large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of linear and unknotted, nonconcatenated ring polymers, we find a strong and unexpected cooperative dynamics: the footprint of mutual entrainment between entangled chains. We show that DEA is a powerful and sensitive probe that reveals previously unnoticed and architecture-dependent spatiotemporal structures of dynamical entanglement in polymeric solutions. We also propose a mean-field approximation of our analysis that provides previously under-appreciated physical insights into the dynamics of generic entangled polymers. We envisage DEA will be useful to analyze the dynamical evolution of entanglements in generic polymeric systems such as blends and composites.

Two-tag correlations and nonequilibrium fluctuation-response relation in ageing single-file diffusion

Spatiotemporally correlated motions of interacting Brownian particles, confined in a narrow channel of infinite length, are studied in terms of statistical quantities involving two particles. A theoretical framework that allows analytical calculation of two-tag correlations is presented on the basis of the Dean-Kawasaki equation describing density fluctuations in colloidal systems. In the equilibrium case, the time-dependent Einstein relation holds between the two-tag displacement correlation and the response function corresponding to it, which is a manifestation of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem for the correlation of density fluctuations. While the standard procedure of closure approximation for nonlinear density fluctuations is known to be obstructed by inconsistency with the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, this difficulty is naturally avoided by switching from the standard Fourier representation of the density field to the label-based Fourier representation of the vacancy field. In the case of ageing dynamics started from equidistant lattice configuration, the time-dependent Einstein relation is violated, as the two-tag correlation depends on the waiting time for equilibration while the response function is not sensitive to it. Within linear approximation, however, there is a simple relation between the density (or vacancy) fluctuations and the corresponding response function, which is valid even if the system is out of equilibrium. This non-equilibrium fluctuation-response relation can be extended to the case of nonlinear fluctuations by means of closure approximation for the vacancy field.

Collective Motion of Repulsive Brownian Particles in Single-File Diffusion with and without Overtaking

Subdiffusion is commonly observed in liquids with high density or in restricted geometries, as the particles are constantly pushed back by their neighbors. Since this “cage effect” emerges from many-body dynamics involving spatiotemporally correlated motions, the slow diffusion should be understood not simply as a one-body problem but as a part of collective dynamics, described in terms of space–time correlations. Such collective dynamics are illustrated here by calculations of the two-particle displacement correlation in a system of repulsive Brownian particles confined in a (quasi-)one-dimensional channel, whose subdiffusive behavior is known as the single-file diffusion (SFD). The analytical calculation is formulated in terms of the Lagrangian correlation of density fluctuations. In addition, numerical solutions to the Langevin equation with large but finite interaction potential are studied to clarify the effect of overtaking. In the limiting case of the ideal SFD without overtaking, correlated motion with a diffusively growing length scale is observed. By allowing the particles to overtake each other, the short-range correlation is destroyed, but the long-range weak correlation remains almost intact. These results describe nested space–time structure of cages, whereby smaller cages are enclosed in larger cages with longer lifetimes.

Thermodynamic scaling of relaxation: insights from anharmonic elasticity

Using molecular dynamics simulations of a molecular liquid, we investigate the thermodynamic scaling (TS) of the structural relaxation time [Formula: see text] in terms of the quantity [Formula: see text], where T and ρ are the temperature and density, respectively. The liquid does not exhibit strong virial-energy correlations. We propose a method for evaluating both the characteristic exponent [Formula: see text] and the TS master curve that uses experimentally accessible quantities that characterise the anharmonic elasticity and does not use details about the microscopic interactions. In particular, we express the TS characteristic exponent [Formula: see text] in terms of the lattice Grüneisen parameter [Formula: see text] and the isochoric anharmonicity [Formula: see text]. An analytic expression of the TS master curve of [Formula: see text] with [Formula: see text] as the key adjustable parameter is found. The comparison with the experimental TS master curves and the isochoric fragilities of 34 glassformers is satisfying. In a few cases, where thermodynamic data are available, we test (i) the predicted characteristic exponent [Formula: see text] and (ii) the isochoric anharmonicity [Formula: see text], as drawn by the best fit of the TS of the structural relaxation, against the available thermodynamic data. A linear relation between the isochoric fragility and the isochoric anharmonicity [Formula: see text] is found and compared favourably with the results of experiments with no adjustable parameters. A relation between the increase of the isochoric vibrational heat capacity due to anharmonicity and the isochoric fragility is derived.