Anomalous Dynamic Arrest Of Non-Interacting Spheres ("Polymer") Diluted In A Hard-Sphere ("Colloid") Liquid

Upon compression, the equilibrium hard-sphere liquid [pair potential u(HS)(r)] freezes at a packing fraction phi(f) = 0.494 or, if crystallization is prevented, becomes metastable up to its glass transition at phi(g) approximate to 0.58. Throughout the fluid regime (phi < phi(g)), we are, thus, certain that this model liquid does not exhibit any form of kinetic arrest. If, however, a small portion of these spheres (packing fraction phi(2) << phi) happen to ignore each other [u(22)(r) = 0] but do not ignore the remaining "normal" hard spheres [u(12)(r) = u(21)(r) = u(11)(r) = u(HS)(r)], whose packing fraction is thus phi(1) = phi - phi(2), they run the risk of becoming dynamically arrested before they demix from the "normal" particles. This unexpected and counterintuitive scenario was first theoretically predicted and then confirmed by simulations. Published by AIP Publishing.