L. Angelani, R. Di Leonardo, G. Ruocco, A. Scala, F. Sciortino
Published 2000-07-14, updated 2000-11-30Version 2
We numerically investigate the supercooled dynamics of two simple model liquids exploiting the partition of the multi-dimension configuration space in basins of attraction of the stationary points (inherent saddles) of the potential energy surface. We find that the inherent saddles order and potential energy are well defined functions of the temperature T. Moreover, decreasing T, the saddle order vanishes at the same temperature (T_MCT) where the inverse diffusivity appears to diverge as a power law. This allows a topological interpretation of T_MCT: it marks the transition from a dynamics between basins of saddles (T>T_MCT) to a dynamics between basins of minima (T<T_MCT).
Comments: 4 pages, 3 figures, to be published on PRL
Journal: Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 5356 (2000)
The connection between non-exponential relaxation and fragility in supercooled liquids
Saddle Points and Dynamics of Lennard-Jones Clusters, Solids and Supercooled Liquids
Barrier Softening near the onset of Non-Activated Transport in Supercooled Liquids: Implications for Establishing Detailed Connection between Thermodynamic and Kinetic Anomalies in Supercooled Liquids
