Dynamic propensity in a kinetically constrained lattice gas

Abstract

We apply the concept of dynamic propensity to a simple kinetically constrained model of glass formers, the two-vacancy assisted triangular lattice gas, or (2)-TLG. We find that the propensity field, defined in our case as the local root-mean square displacement averaged over the ensemble of trajectories with identical initial configurations, is a good measure of dynamical heterogeneity. This suggests a configurational origin for spatial fluctuations of the dynamics, but just as in the case of atomistic systems, we find that propensity is not correlated to any simple structural property. We show instead that certain extended clusters of particles connected to vacancies correlate well with propensity, indicating that these are the fundamental excitations of the (2)-TLG. We also discuss time-correlations and the correlation between configurations within the propensity ensemble.