Heterogeneity and finite size effects in the dynamics of supercooled liquids

Abstract

After brief review of our recent simulation studies on kinetic heterogeneity in supercooled liquids, we report finite-size effects observed in computer simulations by decreasing system size from N = 10 4 to 10 3 and 108. Although no significant deviation is detected in the static pair correlation functions, it is demonstrated that the structural a relaxation in smaller systems become considerably slower than that in larger systems for temperatures below T x at which the size of the cooperative particle motions becomes comparable to the unit cell length of the small system. Also the effects of confinements in planar walls are reported.