Projekte

The interplay of slow dynamics and thermodynamic features of dense liquids is studied by examining how the glass transition changes depending on the presence or absence of Lennard-Jones-like attractions. Quite different thermodynamic behavior leaves the dynamics unchanged, with important consequences for high-pressure experiments on glassy liquids. Numerical results are obtained within mode-coupling theory (MCT), but the qualitative features are argued to hold more generally. A simple square-well model can be used to explain generic features found in experiment.

We investigate stresses and particle motion during the start-up of flow in a colloidal dispersion close to arrest into a glassy state. A combination of molecular dynamics simulation, mode-coupling theory and confocal microscopy experiments is used to investigate the origins of the widely observed stress overshoot and (previously not reported) super-diffusive motion in the transient dynamics. A link between the macro-rheological stress versus strain curves and the microscopic particle motion is established. Negative correlations in the transient auto-correlation function of the potential stresses are found responsible for both phenomena, and arise even for homogeneous flows and almost Gaussian particle displacements.