Reports: AC6
45987-AC6 Non-Perturbative Effects of Dynamical Inhomogeneities in Viscous Fluid Mixtures
Over the last year, the PRF funds have been applied towards the salary of post-doctoral Research Associate Ramses van Zon. This financial support has enabled us to continue our collaboration on the dynamics of glassy systems. The PRF support has enabled work to proceed along one of the central lines of interest in my research group, the role of collective motion in systems exhibiting rugged-energy landscapes. In addition, thanks to these funds, Dr. van Zon has been able to continue his work in the group while looking for a permanent position in Canada.
During the funding period, work has been initiated on computational methods designed to help analyze structure in complex systems. We have developed a method of generating smooth analytical probability densities from simulation data, which enables analytical potentials of mean force to be utilized in mesoscale simulations. In addition, we have been examining means of constructing event-driven simulations based on systems interacting via well-known continuous potentials. This approach is useful in extending the time scales that can be simulated at an atomistic level, an important problem in the dynamics of slow, glassy systems. Finally, we have applied non-equilibrium fluctuation theorems to the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics to permit quantum free energy differences to be computed from dynamical, non-equilibrium processes.
