The role of hydrodynamic interactions on the long-time structural fate of dense colloidal suspensions

The colloidal glass transition presents an intriguing temporal convolution of structural, dynamical, and mechanical effects during aging. This competition simultaneously advances aging and deepens arrest. In this work, we study the mechanics of this competition by considering both the equilibrium and non-equilibrium solidification processes, i.e. crystallization and vitrification, respectively, utilizing large-scale Stokesian dynamic simulations that are massively parallelized. Jumps from liquid into the solid region are executed via controlled volume-fraction quenches, where the speed of the quench is used to modulate the particle dynamics and, consequently, permits toggling between equilibrium and arrested states. We find that the long-time structural fate of the suspension, i.e. a glass or a crystal, is determined during the quench itself and is mechanistically regulated by many-body hydrodynamic interactions.