Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 28, 2025

Confocal Imaging of Confined Quiescent and Flowing Colloid-polymer Mixtures
Published on: May 20, 2014
Attractive versus truncated repulsive supercooled liquids: The dynamics is encoded in the pair correlation function
François P Landes1,2,3,4, Giulio Biroli2, Olivier Dauchot5
1Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Inria, Laboratoire de recherche en informatique, TAU team, 91405 Orsay, France.
Abstract:
We compare glassy dynamics in two liquids that differ in the form of their interaction potentials. Both systems have the same repulsive interactions but one has also an attractive part in the potential. These two systems exhibit very different dynamics despite having nearly identical pair correlation functions. We demonstrate that a properly weighted integral of the pair correlation function, which amplifies the subtle differences between the two systems, correctly captures their dynamical differences. The weights are obtained from a standard machine learning algorithm.
Related Concept Videos
Intermolecular Forces
Noncovalent Attractions in Biomolecules
Noncovalent Attractions in Biomolecules
Four types of noncovalent interactions are hydrogen bonds, van der Waals forces, ionic bonds, and hydrophobic interactions.
Hydrogen bonding results from the electrostatic attraction of a hydrogen atom covalently bonded to a strong-electronegative atom like oxygen,...
Van der Waals Interactions
Intermolecular Forces in Solutions
When the strengths of the intermolecular forces of attraction between solute and solvent species in a solution are no different than those present in the separated components, the solution is formed with no accompanying energy change. Such a solution is called an ideal solution. A mixture of ideal gases (or gases such as helium and argon,...
Intermolecular Forces and Physical Properties

