Static and dynamical heterogeneities in supercooled liquids

We present here some features of supercooled liquids from both the structural and dynamical consideration. We discuss the existence of heterogenous structures characterized by weak mass localization. The analysis is done using the standard methods of density functional theory. The dynamics governing the supercooled states that lead to non-exponential relaxation of the time-correlation functions, are also studied. The dynamical heterogeneities are studied in terms of departure of the single particle dynamics from simple Gaussian behavior over intermediate timescales. Other relevant properties like the velocity auto-correlation function and the mean square displacement associated with the tagged particle dynamics are also computed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.