Dynamic theory of correlations in strongly coupled, classical one-component plasmas: Glass transition in the generalized viscoelastic formalism

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Abstract
A new theory of dynamic correlations in a strongly coupled, classical one-component plasma (OCP) is developed within the generalized viscoelastic formalism. Fully convergent kinetic equations for the strongly coupled OCP are thereby derived with the aid of a fluctuation-theoretic formulation of the collision integrals. The dynamic structure factor S(k,ω) and the coefficient η of shear viscosity are calculated both in the ordinary fluid state and in the metastable supercooled state through a self-consistent solution to the kinetic equation. It is shown that the numerical results in the ordinary fluid state agree well with other theoretical and molecular-dynamics simulation results. A possibility of the dynamic glass transition is predicted in the supercooled OCP through the analyses of the variation in η, the quasielastic peak in S(k,ω) and the behavior of the self-diffusion coefficient; the prediction is compared with those in the glass-transition theories for other systems. Relevance to laboratory experiment is examined in terms of the metastable-state lifetimes against homogeneous nucleation of the crystalline state.