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Updated: Jul 11, 2026

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
Dynamical heterogeneity and nonlinear susceptibility in supercooled liquids with short-range attraction
1Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Abstract:
Recent work has demonstrated the strong qualitative differences between the dynamics near a glass transition driven by short-ranged repulsion and one governed by short-ranged attraction. Here we study in detail the behavior of nonlinear, higher-order correlation functions that measure the growth of length scales associated with dynamical heterogeneity in both types of systems. We find that this measure is qualitatively different in the repulsive and attractive cases with regards to the wave vector dependence as well as the time dependence of the standard nonlinear four-point dynamical susceptibility. We discuss the implications of these results for the general understanding of dynamical heterogeneity in glass-forming liquids.
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