Dynamics of viscous liquids and the random barrier model.

Authors

Thomas B Schrøder, Jeppe C Dyre, Camille Scalliet

Published in

The Journal of chemical physics. Volume 165. Issue 6. Aug 14, 2026.

Abstract

This paper combines the particle-swap Monte Carlo algorithm with long GPU molecular dynamics simulations to analyze the dynamics of a ternary Lennard-Jones glass-forming liquid in the extremely viscous regime. The focus is on the inherent dynamics, obtained by quenching configurations along the configuration-space trajectory into their inherent state. We compare how two functional forms, the von Schweidler law and the prediction of the random barrier model (RBM) in the extreme disorder limit, fit data for the inherent mean-square displacement as a function of time. We find that the RBM, which has no dimensionless free parameters, generally fits the data better than the von Schweidler law, despite the latter's one dimensionless free parameter. In particular, this implies that the RBM predicts the value of the diffusion coefficient from short-time simulation data more accurately than does the von Schweidler expression. Furthermore, we find that the RBM also fits very well the inherent mean-square displacement of a polydisperse Lennard-Jones mixture. It remains an open question why the RBM reproduces well the data despite this model's (unrealistic) assumption of identical energy minima.

PMID:
42584013
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 12 Aug 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.