Lifetime of dynamic heterogeneity in strong and fragile kinetically constrained spin models

Abstract

Kinetically constrained spin models are schematic coarse-grained models for the glass transition which represent an efficient theoretical tool to study detailed spatio-temporal aspects of dynamic heterogeneity in supercooled liquids. Here, we study how spatially correlated dynamic domains evolve with time and compare our results to various experimental and numerical investigations. We find that strong and fragile models yield different results. In particular, the lifetime of dynamic heterogeneity remains constant and roughly equal to the alpha relaxation time in strong models, while it increases more rapidly in fragile models when the glass transition is approached. 1.