Equilibrium theory of the hard sphere fluid and glasses in the metastable regime up to jamming. II. Structure and application to hopping dynamics

Abstract

Building on the equation-of-state theory of Paper I, we construct a new thermodynamically consistent integral equation theory for the equilibrium pair structure of 3-dimensional monodisperse hard spheres applicable up to the jamming transition. The approach is built on a two Yukawa generalized mean spherical approximation closure for the direct correlation function (DCF) beyond contact that reproduces the exact contact value of the pair correlation function and isothermal compressibility. The detailed construction of the DCF is guided by the desire to capture its distinctive features as jamming is approached. Comparison of the theory with jamming limit simulations reveals good agreement for many, but not all, of the key features of the pair correlation function. The theory is more accurate in Fourier space where predictions for the structure factor and DCF are accurate over a wide range of wavevectors from significantly below the first cage peak to very high wavevectors. New features of the equilibrium pair structure are predicted for packing fractions below jamming but well above crystallization. For example, the oscillatory DCF decays very slowly at large wavevectors for high packing fractions as a consequence of the unusual structure of the radial distribution function at small separations. The structural theory is used as input to the nonlinear Langevin equation theory of activated dynamics, and calculations of the alpha relaxation time based on single particle hopping are compared to recent colloid experiments and simulations at very high volume fractions.