Critical test of the mode-coupling theory of the glass transition

Abstract

In its common implementation, the mode-coupling theory of the glass transition predicts the time evolution of the intermediate scattering functions in viscous liquids on the sole basis of the structural information encoded in two-point density correlations. We provide a critical test of this property and show that the theory fails to describe the strong differences of dynamical behavior seen in two model liquids characterized by very similar pair-correlation functions. Because we use "exact" static information provided by numerical simulations, our results are a direct indication that some important information about the dynamics of viscous liquids is not captured by pair correlations and is thus not described by the mode-coupling theory, even in the temperature regime where the theory is usually applied.