Spatial correlation of the dynamic propensity of a glass-forming liquid

We present computer simulation results on the dynamic propensity (as defined by Widmer-Cooper et al 2004 Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 135701) in a Kob-Andersen binary Lennard-Jones liquid system consisting of 8788 particles. We compute the spatial correlation function for the dynamic propensity as a function of both the reduced temperature T, and the time scale on which the particle displacements are measured. For T ≤ 0.6, we find that non-zero correlations occur at the largest length scale accessible in our system. We also show that a cluster-size analysis of particles with extremal values of the dynamic propensity, as well as 3D visualizations, reveal spatially correlated regions that approach the size of our system as T decreases, consistently with the behavior of the spatial correlation function. Next, we define and examine the 'coordination propensity', the isoconfigurational average of the coordination number of the minority B particles around the majority A particles. We show that a significant correlation exists between the spatial fluctuations of the dynamic and coordination propensities. In addition, we find non-zero correlations of the coordination propensity occurring at the largest length scale accessible in our system for all T in the range 0.466 < T < 1.0. We discuss the implications of these results for understanding the length scales of dynamical heterogeneity in glass-forming liquids.