Ultra-long-range dynamic correlations in a microscopic model for aging gels

P Chaudhuri and L Berthier, PHYSICAL REVIEW E, 95, 060601 (2017).

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.95.060601

We use large-scale computer simulations to explore the nonequilibrium aging dynamics in a microscopic model for colloidal gels. We find that gelation resulting from a kinetically arrested phase separation is accompanied by "anomalous" particle dynamics revealed by superdiffusive particle motion and compressed exponential relaxation of time correlation functions. Spatiotemporal analysis of the dynamics reveals intermittent heterogeneities producing spatial correlations over extremely large length scales. Our study is a microscopically resolved model reproducing all features of the spontaneous aging dynamics observed experimentally in soft materials.

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