Tagged-particle motion in a dense confined liquid

Abstract

We investigate the dynamics of a tagged particle embedded in a strongly interacting confined liquid enclosed between two opposing flat walls. Using the Zwanzig-Mori projection operator formalism we obtain an equation of motion for the incoherent scattering function suitably generalized to account for the lack of translational symmetry. We close the equations of motion by a self-consistent mode-coupling ansatz. The interaction of the tracer with the surrounding liquid is encoded in generalized direct correlation functions. We extract the in-plane dynamics and provide a microscopic expression for the diffusion coefficient parallel to the walls. The solute particle may differ in size or interaction from the surrounding host-liquid constituents offering the possibility of a systematic analysis of dynamic effects on the tagged-particle motion in confinement.