Diverging length scale of the inhomogeneous mode-coupling theory: a numerical investigation

Abstract

Biroli et al.'s extension of the standard mode-coupling theory to inhomogeneous equilibrium states [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 195701 (2006)] allowed them to identify a characteristic length scale that diverges upon approaching the mode-coupling transition. We present a numerical investigation of this length scale. To this end we derive and numerically solve equations of motion for coefficients in the small q expansion of the dynamic susceptibility $\chi_{\mathbf{q}}(\mathbf{k};t)$ that describes the change of the system's dynamics due to an external inhomogeneous potential. We study the dependence of the characteristic length scale on time, wave-vector, and on the distance from the mode-coupling transition. We verify scaling predictions of Biroli et al. In addition, we find that the numerical value of the diverging length scale qualitatively agrees with lengths obtained from four-point correlation functions. We show that the diverging length scale has very weak k dependence, which contrasts with very strong $k$ dependence of the $q\to 0$ limit of the susceptibility, $\chi_{\mathbf{q}=0}(\mathbf{k};t)$. Finally, we compare the diverging length obtained from the small q expansion to that resulting from an isotropic approximation applied to the equation of motion for the dynamic susceptibility $\chi_{\mathbf{q}}(\mathbf{k};t)$.