Slow dynamics in supercooled liquids: molecular dynamics simulations

Abstract

The relaxation processes in supercooled liquids were studied by molecular dynamics simulations of simple systems such as a simple Lennard-Jones binary mixture. Our simulations show (1) the existence of three stages of relaxation (microscopic, β and α-relaxation), (2) the scaling behavior of the susceptibility at the minima in the intermediate frequency region and at the α-relaxation peak in the low frequency side, and (3) that the mechanisms of α- and β-relaxation are related to each other and independent of temperature. Although these features have only been observed experimentally so far in complex fluids, our results indicate that simple systems reveal the essential features of anomalous relaxation.