Concerning the formation of chains of particles in the Kob-Andersen (4:1) and Wahnstr{ö}m (1:1) model liquids on coolind and supercooling

Abstract

We report about a previously not discussed structural feature of the model Kob-Andersen (KA) and Wahnstrom (WH) supercooled liquid systems. In particular, we observed that on cooling and supercooling, in the KA system, the large particles exhibit an increasing tendency to form chains. In the WH system, the chains are formed by the smaller and all particles. The numbers of particles (NoPs) in the chains, if calculated on the inherent structures, exhibit a crossover at the potential energy landscape crossover temperature. The observed chains demonstrate, in a direct way, the presence in the studied liquids of the structural angular ordering on length scale up to 9 inter atomic distances. In our view, the observed chains may represent a tendency of particles in liquids to form small 1D crystals in 3D liquids.