Related papers: An introduction to the colloidal glass transition
The glass transition can simply be viewed as the point at which the viscosity of a structurally disordered liquid reaches 10^{13} Poise [1]. This definition is operational but it sidesteps fundamental controversies about the glass: Is the…
We study the quantum version of a lattice model whose classical counterpart captures the physics of structural glasses. We discuss the role of quantum fluctuations in such systems and in particular their interplay with the amorphous order…
We theoretically investigate the glass-transition problem for a quasi-two-dimensional colloidal dense suspension modulated by a one-dimensional periodic external potential as imposed by interfering laser beams. Relying on a mode-coupling…
We have carried out computer simulations of overcompressed suspensions of hard monodisperse ellipsoids and observed their crystallization dynamics. The system was compressed very rapidly in order to reach the regime of slow, glass-like…
Exploring structural order in disordered systems including liquids and glasses is an intriguing but challenging issue in condensed matter physics. Here we construct a new parameter based on the angular distribution function of particles and…
A fresh approach to the data from experiments with hard sphere colloids yields seminal insights into the glass transition. The precise determination of the fraction of particles caged by their neighbours is unprecedented and provides…
We study the glass transition of binary mixtures of dipolar particles in two dimensions within the framework of mode-coupling theory, focusing in particular on the influence of composition changes. In a first step, we demonstrate that the…
Theoretical challenges in understanding the nature of glass and the glass transition remain significant open questions in statistical and condensed matter physics. As a prototypical example of complex physical systems, glasses and the…
Glassy behavior is a generic feature of electrons close to disorder-driven metal-insulator transitions. Deep in the insulating phase, electrons are tightly bound to impurities, and thus classical models for electron glasses have long been…
This perspective article reviews arguments that glass-forming liquids are different from those of standard liquid-state theory, which typically have a viscosity in the mPa$\cdot$s range and relaxation times of order picoseconds. These…
A wide range of materials can exist in microscopically disordered solid forms, referred to as amorphous solids or glasses. Such materials -- oxide glasses and metallic glasses, to polymer glasses, and soft solids such as colloidal glasses,…
The replica theory of glasses predicts that in the infinite dimensional mean field limit there exist two distinct glassy phases of matter: stable glass and marginal glass. We have developed a technique to experimentally probe these phases…
The interplay of slow dynamics and thermodynamic features of dense liquids is studied by examinining how the glass transition changes depending on the presence or absence of Lennard-Jones-like attractions. Quite different thermodynamic…
A simple model of an active colloid consisting of dumbbell-shaped particles that cyclically change their length without propelling themselves is proposed and analyzed. At nanoscales, it represents an idealization for bacterial cytoplasm or…
Within the framework of mode-coupling theory, we present a simple model for describing dense assemblies of active (self-propelled) spherical colloidal particles. For isotropic suspensions, we demonstrate that the glass transition is shifted…
Quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) colloidal hard-sphere suspensions confined in a slit geometry are widely used as two dimensional (2D) model systems in experiments that probe the glassy relaxation dynamics of 2D systems. However, the…
We study experimentally the origin of heterogeneous dynamics in strongly driven glass-forming systems. Thereto, we apply a well-defined force with a laser line trap on individual colloidal polystyrene probe particles seeded in an emulsion…
Using molecular dynamics simulations we study the slow dynamics of a hard sphere fluid confined in a disordered porous matrix. The presence of both discontinuous and continuous glass transitions as well as the complex interplay between…
We discuss the nonlinear rheology of dense colloidal dispersions at the glass transition. A first principles approach starting with interacting Brownian particles in given arbitrary homogeneous (incompressible) flow neglecting hydrodynamic…
Dynamics is central to living systems. In the last two decades, experiments have revealed that the dynamics in diverse biological systems - from intracellular cytoplasm to cellular and organismal aggregates - are remarkably similar to that…