Related papers: Dynamically correlated regions and configurational…
Glassy systems are disordered systems characterized by extremely slow dynamics. Examples are supercooled liquids, whose dynamics slow down under cooling. The specific pattern of slowing-down depends on the material considered. This…
The slow down of dynamics in glass forming liquids as the glass transition is approached has been characterised through the Adam-Gibbs relation, which relates relaxation time scales to the configurational entropy. The Adam-Gibbs relation…
When a liquid freezes, a change in the local atomic structure marks the transition to the crystal. When a liquid is cooled to form a glass, however, no noticeable structural change marks the glass transition. Indeed, characteristic features…
Building on the recently derived inhomogeneous mode-coupling theory, we extend the generalised mode-coupling theory of supercooled liquids to inhomogeneous environments. This provides a first-principles-based, systematic and rigorous way of…
We review the Random First Order Transition Theory of the glass transition, emphasizing the experimental tests of the theory. Many distinct phenomena are quantitatively predicted or explained by the theory, both above and below the glass…
The random first order transition theory of the dynamics of supercooled liquids is extended to treat aging phenomena in nonequilibrium structural glasses. A reformulation of the idea of ``entropic droplets'' in terms of libraries of local…
We investigate the characteristic length scales associated with the glass transition phenomenon. By studying an atomic glass-forming liquid in negatively curved space, for which the local order is well identified and the amount of…
We describe a model for the thermodynamics and dynamics of glass-forming liquids in terms of excitations from an ideal glass state to a Gaussian manifold of configurationally excited states. The quantitative fit of this three parameter…
The glass transition refers to the non-equilibrium process by which an equilibrium liquid is transformed to a non-equilibrium disordered solid, or vice versa. Associated response functions, such as heat capacities, are markedly different on…
Glass is a liquid that has lost its ability to flow. Why this particular substance undergoes its dramatic slowing down in kinetics while remaining barely distinguishable in structure from the fluid state upon cooling constitutes the central…
We explore the nature of glass-formation in variable spatial dimensionality ($d$) based on the generalized entropy theory, a synthesis of the Adam-Gibbs model with direct computation of the configurational entropy of polymer fluids using an…
As approaching the glass transition, particle motion in liquids becomes highly heterogeneous and regions with virtually no mobility coexist with liquid-like domains. This complex dynamics is believed to be responsible for different…
The steep increase of the relaxation time of glass forming liquids upon cooling is traditionally ascribed to an impending entropy crisis: since the system has "nowhere to go", dynamics must come to a halt. This classic argument, due to Adam…
For a deeply supercooled liquid just above its glass transition temperature, we present a simple thermodynamic model, where the deeply supercooled liquid is assumed to be a mixture of solid-like and liquid-like micro regions. The mole…
We reformulate the interpretation of the mean-field glass transition scenario for finite dimensional systems, proposed by Wolynes and collaborators. This allows us to establish clearly a temperature dependent length xi* above which the…
Topological defects are typically quantified relative to ordered backgrounds. The importance of these defects to the understanding of physical phenomena including diverse equilibrium melting transitions from low temperature ordered to…
The term "fragility" describes the rate at which viscosity grows when a supercooled liquid approaches its putative glass transition temperature. The field of glassy materials is actively searching for a structural origin that governs this…
Controversy exists regarding the possible existence of a transition between the liquid and glassy states of water. Here we use experimental measurements of the entropy, specific heat, and enthalpy of both liquid and glassy water to…
We compute the temperature-dependent barrier for alpha-relaxations in several liquids, without adjustable parameters, using experimentally determined elastic, structural, and calorimetric data. We employ the random first order…
We report a molecular dynamics simulation of a supercooled simple monatomic glass-forming liquid. It is found that the onset of the supercooled regime results in formation of distinct domains of slow diffusion which are confined to the…