α-relaxation processes in binary hard-sphere mixtures

Molecular dynamics simulation was performed for four binary hard-sphere mixtures differing in the size ratio of the constituents and in the composition. The simulation was conducted to identify the effect of mixing on the evolution of glassy dynamics upon compressing the liquid into high-density states. The evolution of structural relaxation was detected for a time interval up to five orders of magnitude, by increasing the total packing fraction up to 0.605. The results show that for a mixture with a small-size disparity of the constituents mixing stabilizes the glass state, and for a mixture with large size disparity, mixing stabilizes the liquid.