Microscopic Insights into Dynamical Heterogeneity in a Lane-forming Liquid

Abstract

Dynamical heterogeneity (DH) in non-equilibrium systems is a topic of profound interest yet an open question. In a model system of constantly driven oppositely charged binary colloidal suspension, we explore DH in a model lane-forming system using BD simulations. We show that the system undergoes structural and dynamical cross-over using spatio-temporal correlation functions. For small field, the structural relaxation is homogeneous while it is heterogeneous for sufficiently high field. In order to explore the heterogeneity, we track and tag the particles to compute partial structures that relax at different rates, in which heterogeneity has its maximum in the intermediate state.