Complexity Scaling of Liquid Dynamics.

According to excess-entropy scaling, dynamic properties of liquids like viscosity and diffusion coefficient are determined by the entropy. This link between dynamics and thermodynamics is increasingly studied and of interest also for industrial applications, but hampered by the challenge of calculating entropy efficiently. Utilizing the fact that entropy is basically the Kolmogorov complexity, which can be estimated from optimal compression algorithms [Avinery et al.

Distance-as-time in physical aging.

Although it has been known for half a century that the physical aging of glasses in experiments is described well by a linear thermal-history convolution integral over the so-called material time, the microscopic definition and interpretation of the material time remains a mystery. We propose that the material-time increase over a given time interval reflects the distance traveled by the system's particles. Different possible distance measures are discussed, starting from the standard mean-square displacement and its inherent-state version that excludes the vibrational contribution.

Isomorph Invariance of Higher-Order Structural Measures in Four Lennard-Jones Systems.

In the condensed liquid phase, both single- and multicomponent Lennard-Jones (LJ) systems obey the "hidden-scale-invariance" symmetry to a good approximation. Defining an isomorph as a line of constant excess entropy in the thermodynamic phase diagram, the consequent approximate isomorph invariance of structure and dynamics in appropriate units is well documented. However, although all measures of the structure are predicted to be isomorph invariant, with few exceptions only the radial distribution function (RDF) has been investigated.

How a supercooled liquid borrows structure from the crystal.

Using computer simulations, we establish that the structure of a supercooled binary atomic liquid mixture consists of common neighbor structures similar to those found in the equilibrium crystal phase, a Laves structure. Despite the large accumulation of the crystal-like structure, we establish that the supercooled liquid represents a true metastable liquid and that liquid can "borrow" the crystal structure without being destabilized. We consider whether this feature might be the origin of all instances of liquids with a strongly favored local structure.

Erratum: Structural Origin of Enhanced Dynamics at the Surface of a Glassy Alloy [Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 245501 (2017)].

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.