Static point-to-set correlations in glass-forming liquids.

We analyze static point-to-set correlations in glass-forming liquids. The generic idea is to freeze the position of a set of particles in an equilibrium configuration and to perform sampling in the presence of this additional constraint. Qualitatively different geometries for the confining set of particles are considered and a detailed comparison of resulting static and dynamic correlation functions is performed. Our results reveal the existence of static spatial correlations not detected by conventional two-body correlators, which appear to be decoupled from, and shorter-ranged than, dynamical length scales characterizing dynamic heterogeneity. We find that the dynamics slows down dramatically under confinement, which suggests new ways to investigate the glass transition. Our results indicate that the geometry in which particles are randomly pinned is the best candidate to study static correlations.
(© 2012 American Physical Society)