Scaling of the space-time correlation function of particle currents in a suspension of hard-sphere-like particles: exposing when the motion of particles is Brownian.

The current correlation function is determined from dynamic light scattering measurements of a suspension of particles with hard spherelike interactions. For suspensions in thermodynamic equilibrium we find scaling of the space and time variables of the current correlation function. This finding supports the notion that the movement of suspended particles can be described in terms of uncorrelated Brownian encounters. However, in the metastable fluid, at volume fractions above freezing, this scaling fails.