Collective dynamics in binary liquids: a molecular dynamics study of the composition dependence of the spectra of collective excitations.

The spectra of longitudinal and transverse collective excitations in liquid binary metallic Na(c)K(1-c) alloys are studied for pure components and four different concentrations. A theoretical generalized collective modes approach is used to analyze the concentration dependence of the dispersion of acoustic and optic branches in a wide region of wavenumbers. The dispersion of longitudinal collective excitations in binary alloys is estimated from the eight-variable thermo-viscoelastic dynamic model with full account of thermal fluctuations. It is found that the longitudinal and transverse branches show different dependences on concentration in the short-wavelength region. The issue of 'positive dispersion' of acoustic excitations in liquid binary alloys on the boundary of the hydrodynamic regime is discussed. It is shown that the coupling between longitudinal acoustic and optic modes is responsible for an increase of the 'positive dispersion' close to equimolar composition.