Time-dependent correlations in a supercooled liquid from nonlinear fluctuating hydrodynamics

Nonequilibrium dynamics of four-point correlations of collective density fluctuations in a supercooled liquid

In this paper we study the four-point correlation function χ(4) of collective density fluctuations in a nonequilibrium liquid. The equilibration is controlled by a modified stretched exponential behavior (exp[-(t(w)/τ)(β)]) having the relaxation time τ dependent on the aging time t(w). Similar aging behavior has been seen experimentally in supercooled liquids. The basic equations of fluctuating nonlinear hydrodynamics are solved here numerically to obtain χ(4) for equilibrium and non equilibrium states. We also identify a dynamic length scale ξ from the equilibrated function. ξ(T) grows with fall of temperature T. From a broader perspective, we demonstrate here that the characteristic signatures of dynamical heterogeneities in a supercooled liquid, observed previously in computer simulations of the dynamics of a small number of particles, are also present in the coarse grained equations of generalized hydrodynamics.

Metastable-state dynamics of a liquid: a free-energy landscape study

Using the time dependence of density fluctuations in a supercooled liquid obtained from the solutions of the equations of nonlinear fluctuating hydrodynamics (NFH), the evolution of the system in the free energy landscape is studied. A crossover from a continuous fluid type dynamics to that of hopping between different free energy minima is observed as the liquid is increasingly supercooled. We demonstrate that our results are also in agreement with equilibrium density functional analysis of the same system. The density field obtained in the numerical solution of the NFH equations are further analyzed to introduce complimentary density of voids in the supercooled liquid state and its static and dynamic correlations are computed. The nature of the relaxation of vacancy correlations are observed to be similar to that of the density fluctuations.

Time dependent stretching of aging dynamics in a generalized hydrodynamic model for supercooled liquids

The nonequilibrium dynamics and aging behavior of a supercooled liquid is investigated from an analysis of the correlation of density fluctuations at two different times. The dynamic correlation functions are computed by solving numerically the equations of nonlinear fluctuating hydrodynamics. The aging time dependence follows a modified stretched exponential form with a relaxation time which is dependent on the aging time. This is similar to the behavior seen in the aging data of dielectric response functions of a typical glass forming liquid.