Heterogeneous Structure, Heterogeneous Dynamics, and Complex Behavior in Two-Dimensional Liquids

Abstract

Analysis of the metrical and topological features of the local structure in a freezing two-dimensional Lennard-Jones system found that in a narrow strip pound of thermodynamic states close to the melting line, the liquid becomes a complex liquid characterized by a super-Arrhenius increase of relaxation times, stretched-exponential decay of correlations in time, and a power-law distribution of waiting times for changes in the local order. In pound, the structure of the liquid and its dynamics are spatially heterogeneous; the sizes of ordered clusters are power-law distributed. Those features are governed by local structure evolution between solid-like and liquid-like (disordered) patterns. The liquid inside the strip pound gives a unique opportunity to study how heterogeneous structure, dynamics and complexity are intertwined with each other on a microscopic level.