The Dynamic Heat Capacity of the Potential Energy Landscape of a Simple Chain Model

The dynamic heat capacity of a simple (bead-spring) polymeric model glassformer was computed using molecular dynamics simulations by sinusoidally driving the temperature, and recording the resultant energy. The underlying potential energy landscape of the system was probed by taking a time series of particle positions and quenching them with an energy minimization routine. This shows that the long time relaxation of the model glassformer is the direct result of the dynamics of the potential energy landscape.