Heterogeneity and finite size effects in the dynamics of supercooled liquids

After brief review of our recent simulation studies on kinetic heterogeneity in supercooled liquids, we report finite-size effects observed in computer simulations by decreasing system size from N = 10(4) to 10(3) and 108. Although no significant deviation is detected in the static pair correlation functions, it is demonstrated that the structural alpha relaxation in smaller systems become considerably slower than that in larger systems for temperatures below T-x at which the size of the cooperative particle motions becomes comparable to the unit cell length of the small system. Also the effects of confinements in planar wails are reported.