Is there a growing correlation length near the glass transition?

Abstract

We present the results of a molecular-dynamics study on a Lennard-Jones mixture. Measurements of density and bond-angle correlation functions show that the answer to the question posed in the title is NO. We also show that icosahedral order plays no special role in the glass transition, but that a normalized measure of the persistence of orientational correlations in the glass shows a systematic dependence on the spherical harmonic index l.