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Magdaleno Medina-Noyola

Publications and source records attributed to Magdaleno Medina-Noyola.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Self-consistent generalized Langevin equation for colloidal mixtures.

A self-consistent theory of collective and tracer diffusion in colloidal mixtures is presented. This theory is based on exact results for the partial intermediate scattering functions derived within the framework of the generalized Langevin equation formalism, plus a number of conceptually simple and sensible approximations. The first of these consists of a Vineyard-like approximation between collective and tracer diffusion, which writes the collective dynamics in terms of the memory function related to tracer diffusion. The second consists of interpolating this only unknown memory function between its two exact limits at small and large wave vectors; for this, a phenomenologically determined, but not arbitrary, interpolating function is introduced: a Lorentzian with its inflection point located at the first minimum of the partial static structure factor. The small wave-vector exact limit involves a time-dependent friction function, for which we take a general approximate result, previously derived within the generalized Langevin equation formalism. This general result expresses the time-dependent friction function in terms of the partial intermediate scattering functions, thus closing the system of equations into a fully self-consistent scheme. This extends to mixtures a recently proposed self-consistent theory developed for monodisperse suspensions [Yeomans-Reyna and Medina-Noyola, Phys. Rev. E 64, 066114 (2001)]. As an illustration of its quantitative accuracy, its application to a simple model of a binary dispersion in the absence of hydrodynamic interactions is reported.

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Dynamic equivalence between soft- and hard-core Brownian fluids.

In this work, we demonstrate the dynamic equivalence between the members of the family of Brownian fluids whose particles interact through strongly repulsive radially symmetric soft-core potentials. We specifically consider pair potentials proportional to inverse powers of (r/sigma). This equivalence is the dynamic extension of the static equivalence between all these pair potentials and the hard-sphere fluid, assumed in the treatment of soft-core reference potentials in the classical (Weeks-Chandler-Andersen or Barker-Henderson) perturbation theories of simple liquids. In contrast with the strict hard-sphere Brownian system, in the case of soft-sphere potentials the conventional Brownian dynamics algorithm is indeed well defined. We find that, except for small values of nu, and/or very short times, the dynamic properties of all these systems collapse into a single universal curve, upon a well-defined rescaling of the time and distance variables. This family of systems includes the hard-sphere limit. This observation permits a conceptually simple, new, and accurate Brownian dynamics algorithm to simulate the dynamic properties of the hard-sphere model dispersion without hydrodynamic interactions. Such an algorithm consists of the straightforward rescaling of the Brownian-dynamics simulated properties of any of the dynamically equivalent soft-sphere systems.

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Self-consistent theory of collective Brownian dynamics: theory versus simulation.

A recently developed theory of collective diffusion in colloidal suspensions is tested regarding the quantitative accuracy of its description of the dynamics of monodisperse model colloidal systems without hydrodynamic interactions. The idea is to exhibit the isolated effects of the direct interactions, which constitute the main microscopic relaxation mechanism, in the absence of other effects, such as hydrodynamic interactions. Here we compare the numerical solution of the fully self-consistent theory with the results of Brownian dynamics simulation of the van Hove function G(r,t) and/or the intermediate scattering function F(k,t) of four simple model systems. Two of them are representative of short-ranged soft-core repulsive interactions [(sigma/r)(mu), with mu>>1], in two and in three dimensions. The other two involve long-ranged repulsive forces in two (dipolar, r(-3) potential) and in three (screened Coulomb, or repulsive Yukawa interactions) dimensions. We find that the theory, without any sort of adjustable parameters or rescaling prescriptions, provides an excellent approximate description of the collective dynamics of these model systems, particularly in the short- and intermediate-time regimes. We also compare our results with those of the single exponential approximation and with the competing mode-mode coupling theory.

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