Numerical study of the glass–glass transition in short-ranged attractive colloids

Abstract

We report extensive numerical simulations in the glass region for a simple model ofshort-ranged attractive colloids, the square well model. We investigate the behaviour of thedensity autocorrelation function and of the static structure factor in the region oftemperatures and packing fractions where a glass–glass transition is expected according totheoretical predictions. We strengthen our observations by studying both waiting time andhistory dependence of the numerical results. We provide evidence supportingthe possibility that activated bond-breaking processes destabilize the attractiveglass, preventing the full observation of a sharp glass–glass kinetic transition.