Monday, 31 October 2005 - 2:10 PM
67e

Novel Computational Probes of Diffusive Motion

M. Scott Shell1, Frank H. Stillinger2, Thomas Lombardo1, and Pablo G. Debenedetti1. (1) Chemical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, (2) Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544

Recently we proposed new theoretical expressions for the self-diffusion coefficient and the shear viscosity [1]. The equation for the diffusion coefficient emphasizes how initial particle momentum biases the long-time mean displacement. We present numerical calculations for two model systems: a binary Lennard-Jones mixture and the Van Beest-Kramer-Van Santen (BKS) potential for liquid silica. The primary conceptual tool is the joint probability distribution of single particles as a function of initial velocity and positional displacement at a given later instant. In the supercooled regime there appears a marked deviation of the momentum-integrated displacement distribution away from single-Gaussian behavior. We investigate the possible connection of this observation with the appearance of "dynamic heterogeneity" [2], whereby different regions of a supercooled liquid exhibit markedly different dynamics.

[1] Stillinger, F.H., and Debenedetti, P.G., J.Phys.Chem. B, 109, 6604 (2005).

[2] Ediger, M.D., Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem., 51, 99 (2000)


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