Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma Sapienza, piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185, Roma, Italy.
Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Jul 30;105(5):055703. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.055703. Epub 2010 Jul 29.
We study dynamic heterogeneities in a model glass former whose overlap with a reference configuration is constrained to a fixed value. We find that the system phase separates into regions of small and large overlap, indicating that a nonzero surface tension plays an important role in the formation of dynamical heterogeneities. We calculate an appropriate thermodynamic potential and find evidence of a Maxwell construction consistent with a spinodal decomposition of two phases. Our results suggest that even in standard, unconstrained systems dynamic heterogeneities are the expression of an ephemeral phase-separating regime ruled by a finite surface tension.
我们研究了一个模型玻璃形成体中的动态非均匀性，该模型的重叠与参考构型的重叠被限制在一个固定值。我们发现系统会分相成小重叠和大重叠区域，这表明非零的表面张力在动态非均匀性的形成中起着重要作用。我们计算了适当的热力学势，并找到了与两个相的旋节线分解一致的麦克斯韦构造的证据。我们的结果表明，即使在标准的、未受约束的系统中，动态非均匀性也是由有限表面张力控制的短暂分相状态的表现。
