Heterogeneous slow dynamics and the interaction potential of glass-forming liquids

The role of the intermolecular interaction potential on the dynamic and thermodynamic properties of model glass-forming mixtures is investigated through molecular dynamics simulations. Variations of the repulsive exponent m in the well-studied Lennard-Jones Kob-Andersen mixture are shown to have a negligible effect on the fragility and dynamic correlation volumes when quenches are performed at constant pressure. The number of dynamically correlated particles, estimated from the temperature derivative of a two-point dynamic correlation function, is approximately invariant to m at any fixed relaxation time. Further, the density scaling property of a model tetrahedral network glass-former, based on inverse power law and Lennard-Jones potentials, is investigated. The optimal scaling exponent gamma is close to zero and does not superpose the data well. The breakdown of density scaling is consistent with the absence of correlation between fluctuations of the virial and the potential energy. These results emphasize the crucial role of structural many-body correlations in glass-forming systems and show the need of investigations of more complex and realistic model liquids. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.