Structure and dynamics in glass-formers: predictability at large length scales

摘要

Dynamic heterogeneity in glass-formers has been related to their staticstructure using the concept of dynamic propensity. We re-examine thisrelationship by analyzing dynamical fluctuations in two atomistic glass-formersand two theoretical models. We introduce quantitative statistical indicatorswhich show that the dynamics of individual particles cannot be predicted on thebasis of the propensity, nor by any structural indicator. However, the spatialstructure of the propensity field does have predictive power for the spatialcorrelations associated with dynamic heterogeneity. Our results suggest thatthe quest for a connection between static and dynamic properties ofglass-formers at the particle level is vain, but they demonstrate that suchconnection does exist on larger length scales.