Properties of a Glass-Forming System as Derived from Its Potential Energy Landscape

Many properties of glass-forming systems can be explained in terms of their multidimensional potential energy landscape. Here the total potential energy landscape of a small glass-forming system with periodic boundary conditions is determined numerically. An appropriate one-dimensional projection is introduced. It allows one to visualize how crystalline and amorphous regions are separated from each other and to find a direct explanation of prominent dynamic features observed in molecular dynamics simulations. The energy landscape and the occurrence of tunneling systems is elucidated for different densities.