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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
The glass transition of supercooled liquids is one of the unsolved problems in condensed matter physics: general agreement on the cause of the dramatic slowing down of structural relaxation in glass-forming liquids is still lacking. In this work we focus on the role of connectivity in polymer glasses, demonstrating that although bonding connectivity results in glass formation and caged dynamics, bonding sequentiality that defines a polymer chain is irrelevant: glassy dynamics is purely a result of the number of connections per particle, independently of how these connections are formed. These findings agree with the Phillips-Thorpe topological constraint theory where glass-forming ability is determined by comparing the number of atomic degrees of freedom with the number of interatomic force field constraints. We analyse the heterogenous dynamics of modeled coarse-grained polymer chains from the perspective of displacement and connectivity domains, shining light on several dynamical features of the glass transition in polymers.This talk is a part of the student seminar series. Multiple ten minute talks starting at 2:00pm
Host: Anna Lapalla