Dynamic length scales in glass-forming liquids: an inhomogeneous molecular dynamics simulation approach

In this work, we numerically investigate a new method for the characterization of growing length scales associated with spatially heterogeneous dynamics of glass-forming liquids. This approach, motivated by the formulation of the inhomogeneous mode-coupling theory (IMCT) [Biroli, G.; et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2006 97, 195701], utilizes inhomogeneous molecular dynamics simulations in which the system is perturbed by a spatially modulated external potential. We show that the response of the two-point correlation function to the external field allows one to probe dynamic correlations. We examine the critical properties shown by this function, in particular, the associated dynamic correlation length, that is found to be comparable to the one extracted from standardly employed four-point correlation functions. Our numerical results are in qualitative agreement with IMCT predictions but suggest that one has to take into account fluctuations not included in this mean-field approach to reach quantitative agreement. Advantages of our approach over the more conventional one based on four-point correlation functions are discussed.