Quenches and crunches: Does the system explore in ageing the same part of the configuration space explored in equilibrium?

Abstract

Numerical studies are providing novel information on the physical processes associated with physical ageing. The process of ageing has been shown to consist of a slow process of explorations of deeper and deeper minima of the system's potential energy surface. In this article we compare the properties of the basins explored in equilibrium with those explored during the ageing process both for sudden temperature changes and for sudden density changes. We find that the hypothesis that during the ageing process the system explores the part of the configuration space explored in equilibrium holds only for shallow quenches or for the early ageing dynamics. At longer times, systematic deviations are observed. In the case of crunches, such deviations are much more apparent.