Dynamic heterogeneity in two-dimensional supercooled liquids: comparison of bond-breaking and bond-orientational correlations

Abstract: We compare the spatial correlations of bond-breaking events and bond-orientational relaxation in a model two-dimensional liquid undergoing Newtonian dynamics. We find that the relaxation time of the bond-breaking correlation function is much longer than the relaxation time of the bond-orientational correlation function and self-intermediate scattering function. However, the relaxation time of the bond-orientational correlation function increases faster with decreasing temperature than the relaxation time of the bond-breaking correlation function and the self-intermediate scattering function. Moreover, the dynamic correlation length that characterizes the size of correlated bond-orientational relaxation grows faster with decreasing temperature than the dynamic correlation length that characterizes the size of correlated bond-breaking events. We also examine the ensemble-dependent and ensemble-independent dynamic susceptibilities for both bond-breaking correlations and bond-orientational correlations. We find that for both correlations, the ensemble-dependent and ensemble-independent susceptibilities exhibit a maximum at nearly the same time, and this maximum occurs at a time slightly shorter than the peak position of the dynamic correlation length.