Pinchaipat Rattachai, Campo Matteo, Turci Francesco, Hallett James E, Speck Thomas, Royall C Patrick
H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TL, United Kingdom.
Centre for Nanoscience and Quantum Information, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1FD, United Kingdom.
Phys Rev Lett. 2017 Jul 14;119(2):028004. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.028004. Epub 2017 Jul 13.
Among the key insights into the glass transition has been the identification of a nonequilibrium phase transition in trajectory space which reveals phase coexistence between the normal supercooled liquid (active phase) and a glassy state (inactive phase). Here, we present evidence that such a transition occurs in experiments. In colloidal hard spheres, we find a non-Gaussian distribution of trajectories leaning towards those rich in locally favored structures (LFSs), associated with the emergence of slow dynamics. This we interpret as evidence for a nonequilibrium transition to an inactive LFS-rich phase. Reweighting trajectories reveals a first-order phase transition in trajectory space between a normal liquid and a LFS-rich phase. We also find evidence for a purely dynamical transition in trajectory space.
对玻璃化转变的关键见解之一是在轨迹空间中识别出非平衡相变，该相变揭示了正常过冷液体（活性相）和玻璃态（非活性相）之间的相共存。在此，我们提供证据表明这种转变在实验中发生。在胶体硬球中，我们发现轨迹的非高斯分布倾向于那些富含局部有利结构（LFSs）的轨迹，这与慢动力学的出现有关。我们将此解释为向富含LFS的非活性相发生非平衡转变的证据。对轨迹进行重加权揭示了轨迹空间中正常液体和富含LFS相之间的一级相变。我们还发现了轨迹空间中纯动力学转变的证据。
