Abstract
Computer simulations of a model glass-forming system are presented, which study the correlation between the dynamics in real space and the topography of the potential energy landscape. This analysis clearly reveals that in the supercooled regime the dynamics is strongly influenced by the presence of deep valleys in the energy landscape, corresponding to long-lived metastable amorphous states. We explicitly relate nonexponential relaxation effects and dynamic heterogeneities to these metastable states and thus to the specific topography of the energy landscape.
- Received 21 June 1999
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.2168
©2000 American Physical Society