Related papers: On the relation between kinetically constrained mo…
The routine transformation of a liquid, as it is cooled rapidly, resulting in glass formation, is remarkably complex. A theoretical explanation of the dynamics associated with this process has remained one of the major unsolved problems in…
At the mean-field level, on fully connected lattices, several disordered spin models have been shown to belong to the universality class of "structural glasses", with a "random first-order transition" (RFOT) characterized by a discontinuous…
The aim of this paper is to summarise the basic arguments and the intuition bolstering the RFOT picture for glasses, based on a finite dimensional extension of mean-field models with an exponentially large number of metastable states. We…
We analyze the ways in which the random first order phase transition (RFOT) of the glass transition differs from the well-studied regular first order and second order (or continuous) phase transitions. Just as is the case in the latter two…
Extensive computer simulations are performed for a few model glass-forming liquids in both two and three dimensions to study their dynamics when a randomly chosen fraction of particles are frozen in their equilibrium positions. For all the…
The random first-order transition (RFOT) theory of the structural glass transition is reviewed in a pedagogical fashion. The rigidity that emerges in crystals and glassy liquids is of the same fundamental origin. In both cases, it…
We use Brownian dynamics simulations of a binary mixture of highly charged spherical colloidal particles to illustrate many of the implications of the Random First Order Transition (RFOT) theory (PRA 40 1045 (1989)), which is the only…
We review the use of kinetically constrained models (KCMs) for the study of dynamics in glassy systems. The characteristic feature of KCMs is that they have trivial, often non-interacting, equilibrium behaviour but interesting slow dynamics…
The Random First Order Transition (RFOT) theory started with the pioneering work of Kirkpatrick, Thirumalai and Wolynes. It leverages the methods and advances of the theory of disordered systems. It fares remarkably well at reproducing the…
While the transformation of flowing liquids into rigid glasses is omnipresent, a complete understanding of vitrification remains elusive. Of the numerous approaches aimed at solving the glass transition problem, the Random First-Order…
Kinetically constrained models (KCMs) have been used to study and understand the origin of glassy dynamics. Despite having trivial thermodynamic properties, their dynamics slows down dramatically at low temperatures while displaying…
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…
We consider the theory of the glass phase and jamming of hard spheres in the large space dimension limit. Building upon the exact expression for the free-energy functional obtained previously, we find that the Random First Order Transition…
We show that the dynamics of kinetically constrained models of glass formers takes place at a first-order coexistence line between active and inactive dynamical phases. We prove this by computing the large-deviation functions of suitable…
The Random First Order Transition (RFOT) theory of glasses provides a unified framework for explaining the observed correlations of the kinetic and thermodynamic behaviors of glass-forming liquids having a wide variety of chemical…
The number of compact structures of a single condensed polymer (SCP), with similar free energies, grows exponentially with the degree of polymerization. In analogy with structural glasses (SGs), we expect that at low temperatures chain…
We define a new family of random spin models with one-dimensional structure, finite-range multi-spin interactions, and bounded average degree (number of interactions in which each spin participates). Unfrustrated ground states can be…
Dense active matter, in the fluid or amorphous-solid form, has generated intense interest as a model for the dynamics inside living cells and multicellular systems. An extension of the random first-order transition theory (RFOT) to include…
There are deep analogies between the melting dynamics in systems with a first order phase transition and the dynamics from equilibrium in super-cooled liquids. For a class of Ising spin models undergoing a first order transition - namely…
The Random First Order Transition Theory (RFOT) predicts that transport proceeds by cooperative movement of particles in domains whose sizes increase as a liquid is compressed above a characteristic volume fraction, $\phi_d$. The rounded…