Nonaffine deformation of inherent structure as a static signature of cooperativity in supercooled liquids.
We unveil the existence of nonaffinely rearranging regions in the inherent structures (IS) of supercooled liquids by numerical simulations of model glass formers subject to static shear deformations combined with local energy minimizations. In the liquid state IS, we find a broad distribution of large rearrangements which are correlated only over small distances. At low temperatures, the onset of the cooperative dynamics corresponds to much smaller displacements correlated over larger distances. This finding indicates the presence of nonaffinely rearranging domains of relevant size in the IS deformation, which can be seen as the static counterpart of the cooperatively rearranging regions in the dynamics. This idea provides new insight into possible structural signatures of slow cooperative dynamics of supercooled liquids and supports the connections with elastic heterogeneities found in amorphous solids.
ETH Zürich, Polymer Physics, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
Emanuela
E
Del Gado
Patrick
P
Ilg
Martin
M
Kröger
Hans Christian
HC
Ottinger