Fluctuations and Transport in Dense Liquids

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The research concerns the study of nonequilibrium properties of dense fluids and continues previous work carried out by the PI. The problems to be considered are of two types: 1) dynamical properties of viscous fluids and their freezing in a glassy state. Emphasis is placed on the study of the slowing down of the relaxation of degrees of freedom that are important in real glass-forming fluids, such as orientational correlations and compositional disorder. 2) Nonequilibrium phase transitions to and from states characterized by ordering on molecular length scales, such as shear induced melting and freezing. An important objective of this study is to make some progress toward establishing a general framework for the description of these phenomena. A generalization of the equilibrium theory of freezing is proposed to describe discontinuous nonequilibrium phase transition.