English

Ar:N$_2$ - a non-universal glass

Disordered Systems and Neural Networks 2016-08-11 v2

Abstract

The bias energies of various two-level systems (TLSs) and their strengths of interactions with the strain are calculated for Ar:N2_2 glass. Unlike the case in KBr:CN, a distinct class of TLSs having weak interaction with the strain and untypically small bias energies is not found. The addition of CO molecules introduces CO flips which form such a class of weakly interacting TLSs, albeit at much lower coupling than are typically observed in solids. We conclude that because of the absence of a distinct class of weakly interacting TLSs, Ar:N2_2 is a non-universal glass, the first such system in three dimensions and in ambient pressure. Our results further suggest that Ar:N2_2:CO may show universal properties, but at temperatures lower than 0.1\approx 0.1 K, much smaller than typical temperature 3\approx 3 K associated with universality, because of the untypical softness of this system. Our results thus shed light on two long standing questions regarding low temperature properties of glasses: the necessary and sufficient conditions for quantitative universality of phonon attenuation, and what dictates the energy scale of 3\approx 3 K below which universality it typically observed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1405.2217,
  title  = {Ar:N$_2$ - a non-universal glass},
  author = {Alejandro Gaita-Ariño and Vicente F. González-Albuixech and Moshe Schechter},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1405.2217},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

6 pages, 2 figures, results for excitations densities of states are added, presentation improved

R2 v1 2026-06-22T04:10:03.844Z