Single-particle motion in classical monatomic liquids

Non-Arrhenius behaviour of nickel self-diffusion in liquid Ni77Si23

Nickel self-diffusion was measured for a Ni₇₇Si₂₃alloy in the liquid state over a temperature range of about 400 K through quasielastic neutron scattering. At the two lowest temperature points the derived diffusion coefficients deviate from a high-temperature Arrhenius-type behaviour and indicate a change in dynamics above the liquidus temperature. A fit with a power-law temperature dependence as predicted by the mode coupling theory for the liquid to glass transition can describe the diffusion coefficients quite well over the whole measured temperature range. The obtained results agree with predictions from a classical molecular dynamics (MD)-simulation, which evidenced an increasing glass forming ability with increasing silicon content. A crossover to a super-Arrhenius behaviour was reported for metallic glass formers above the liquidus temperature and the here investigated NiSi alloy demonstrates the same signature.

Sodium ion self-diffusion in molten NaBr probed over different length scales

The single-particle dynamics of sodium ions in molten sodium bromide has been investigated with quasielastic neutron scattering. A detailed and rather extensive data analysis procedure allowed determination of the pure sodium ion dynamics with increasing wave vector. Two different evaluation procedures agree perfectly on the resulting diffusion coefficient of sodium ions on long distances. A simple kinetic theory based on binary collisions of hard spheres is not able to reproduce the sodium diffusion coefficient. The derived reduced linewidth from modeling with a Lorentzian spectral function decreases with increasing wave vector towards the first structure factor maximum. That deviation from the hydrodynamic behavior signals the hindrance of the microscopic diffusion process due to the so-called cage effect when microscopic length scales are probed in a dense fluid. The observed quadratic wave-number-dependent decrease might be evidence for a coupling to density fluctuations as the source of the changes in the diffusion process. The results indicate that in the molten salt NaBr near the melting point the self-diffusion process might be governed by similar processes as already observed in dense metallic liquids.

Viscoelastic model for the dynamic structure factors of binary systems

This paper presents the viscoelastic model for the Ashcroft-Langreth dynamic structure factors of liquid binary mixtures. We also provide expressions for the Bhatia-Thornton dynamic structure factors and, within these expressions, show how the model reproduces both the dynamic and the self-dynamic structure factors corresponding to a one-component system in the appropriate limits (pseudobinary system or zero concentration of one component). In particular we analyze the behavior of the concentration-concentration dynamic structure factor and longitudinal current, and their corresponding counterparts in the one-component limit, namely, the self-dynamic structure factor and self-longitudinal current. The results for several lithium alloys with different ordering tendencies are compared with computer simulation data, leading to a good qualitative agreement, and showing the natural appearance in the model of the fast sound phenomenon.

Direct experimental access to microscopic dynamics in liquid hydrogen

We have obtained the double-differential incoherent neutron scattering cross section of liquid and solid parahydrogen in various thermodynamic conditions using TOSCA, a time-of-flight, inverse geometry, crystal analyzer spectrometer, operating at the pulsed neutron source ISIS. The measured cross section provides direct experimental access to the self part of the center-of-mass inelastic structure factor of the parahydrogen molecules in the system. Data have been corrected for the experimental effects and then analyzed in the framework of the Young-Koppel model and the Gaussian approximation. The velocity autocorrelation functions and their energy spectra have been obtained from a fitting procedure, making use of the quantum generalized Langevin equation and of model memory functions, and finally compared to the most recent results of both molecular centroid dynamics and self-consistent quantum mode-coupling theory. Some dynamic quantities were also related to simple equilibrium properties and simulated through a standard path integral Monte Carlo code. Results are very interesting but still urge for further developments of theoretical and dynamic simulation approaches, as well as for more extensive experimental efforts.

Molecular hydrodynamic approach to dynamical correlations in quantum liquids

A quantum molecular hydrodynamic formalism is developed for the study of dynamics in quantum liquids. The method combines exact static input, generated by path-integral Monte Carlo, and an approximate form of the quantum memory function for the solution of the exact quantum generalized Langevin equation under consideration. This methodology is applied to the study of the spectrum of density fluctuations in liquid para-H2. Using a physically motivated approximation for the memory function, semiquantitative agreement is obtained for S(k,omega) in comparison to the recent experiments of Bermejo et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 5359 (2000)]. Improvement of the methodology and future applications are discussed.

Self-dynamic structure factor of dense liquids: theory and simulation

The self-intermediate dynamic structure factor Fs(k,t) of liquid lithium near the melting temperature is calculated by molecular dynamics. The results are compared with the predictions of several theoretical approaches, paying special attention to the Lovesey model and the Wahnström and Sjögren mode-coupling theory. To this end the results for the Fs(k,t) second memory function predicted by both models are compared with the ones calculated from the simulations.