Connections between structural jamming, local metabasin features, and relaxation dynamics in a supercooled glassy liquid

Dynamics in glass-forming liquids in the supercooled regime vary considerably from one point of the sample to another suggesting the existence of regions with different degrees of jamming. In fact, the existence of relatively compact regions with particles with an enhanced propensity for motion has been detected in model glassy systems. In turn, the structural relaxation has been shown to be accomplished by means of a series of fast transitions between metabasins in the potential energy landscape involving the collective motion of a substantial number of particles arranged in relatively compact clusters (democratic clusters or d clusters). In this work we shall complete this picture by identifying the connections between local structural jamming, metabasin confining strength, and d clusters. Thus we shall demonstrate that the degree of jamming of the local structure dictates the confining strength of the local metabasin and that the local high propensity regions and the d clusters are not only similar in nature but that they share a significant amount of particles.