On the origin of dynamic heterogeneities in glass-forming liquids

We employ classical Molecular Dynamics simulations to study the cooperative dynamics of two low molecular weight glass-formers, propylene carbonate and salol. The length scales of dynamic heterogeneities are estimated. After appropriate scaling both glass-formers display a similar temperature dependence of this length scale. Local structural properties like density, regularity, and potential energy are correlated with different local dynamical observables. We find that the dynamic heterogeneities are most strongly related to the local potential energy. To obtain an optimum correlation the local dynamics has to be characterized by the residence time.