Session W18 - Computer Simulation II.
ORAL session, Thursday morning, March 15
Room 308-308, Washington State Convention Center
The absence of significant changes in structural properties of glass forming liquids and polymer melts on cooling, while dynamic properties change by many orders of magnitude, is one underlying mystery of the glass transition. In this talk, we aim to better elucidate the structural changes of a simulated polymer melt on cooling using a Voronoi analysis of the local structure. Preliminary results indicate that the local structural changes on cooling can be related to the glass transition temperature. Additionally, we show that the local structure plays an important role for single monomer motion. This local structural heterogeneity is also reflected in the potential energy, as anticipated by previous works.