Related papers: Nature of excitations and defects in structural gl…
We discuss the microscopic mechanisms by which low-temperature amorphous states, such as ultrastable glasses, transform into equilibrium fluids, after a sudden temperature increase. Experiments suggest that this process is similar to the…
Amorphous solids exhibit quasi-universal low-temperature anomalies whose origin has been ascribed to localized tunneling defects. Using an advanced Monte Carlo procedure, we create {\it in silico} glasses spanning from hyperquenched to…
Glassy solids exhibit a wide variety of generic thermomechanical properties, ranging from universal anomalous specific heat at cryogenic temperatures to nonlinear plastic yielding and failure under external driving forces, which…
The role of porous structure and glass density in response to compressive deformation of amorphous materials is investigated via molecular dynamics simulations. The disordered, porous structures were prepared by quenching a high-temperature…
The time evolution of the pore size distributions and mechanical properties of amorphous solids at constant pressure is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. The porous glasses were initially prepared at constant volume conditions…
Glasses are structurally liquid-like, but mechanically solid-like. Most attempts to understand glasses start from liquid state theory. Here we take the opposite point of view, and use concepts from solid state physics. We determine the…
Glass is a microscopically disordered, solid form of matter that results when a fluid is cooled or compressed in such a fashion that it does not crystallise. Almost all types of materials are capable of glass formation -- polymers, metal…
Comprehending sound damping is integral to understanding the anomalous low temperature properties of glasses. Despite decades of studies, the underlying mechanism of sound damping in glasses is still debated. In this perspective we review…
While diffusion in crystalline solids is quantitatively understood through defect-mediated atomic hops, no comparable quantitative framework exists for glasses. In these systems, the origin of large diffusion activation energies remains…
Apart from not having crystallized, supercooled liquids can be considered as being properly equilibrated and thus can be described by a few thermodynamic control variables. In contrast, glasses and other amorphous solids can be arbitrarily…
Two nearly universal and anomalous properties of glasses, the peak in the specific heat and plateau of the thermal conductivity, occur around the same temperature. This coincidence suggests that the two phenomena are related. Both effects…
The plastic deformation of crystalline materials can be understood by considering their structural defects such as disclinations and dislocations. Although glasses are also solids, their structure resembles closely the one of a liquid and…
We use computer simulations to study the microscopic dynamics of an athermal assembly of soft particles near the fluid-to-solid, jamming transition. Borrowing tools developed to study dynamic heterogeneity near glass transitions, we…
What characterises a solid is its way to respond to external stresses. Ordered solids, such crystals, display an elastic regime followed by a plastic one, both well understood microscopically in terms of lattice distortion and dislocations.…
Among the many physical properties, the amorphous state manifests itself in the most spectacular way in heat transport. Anomalously low thermal conductivity, its low-temperature dependence as a function of temperature, the presence of a…
For several atomistic models of glass formers, at conditions below their glassy dynamics onset temperatures, ${T_\mathrm{o}}$, we use importance sampling of trajectory space to study the structure, statistics and dynamics of excitations…
In complex crystals close to melting or at finite temperatures, different types of defects are ubiquitous and their role becomes relevant in the mechanical response of these solids. Conventional elasticity theory fails to provide a…
We construct a quantum mechanical model of perfectly isotropic amorphous solids as fuzzy crystals and establish an analytical theory of vibrations for glasses at low temperature. Our theoretical framework relies on the basic principle that…
Low-energy excitations play a key role in all condensed-matter systems, yet there is limited understanding of their nature in glasses, where they correspond to local rearrangements of groups of particles. Here we introduce an algorithm to…
We point out that the repeatedly reported glass-like properties of crystalline materials are not necessarily associated with localized (or quasilocalized) excitations. In real crystals, optical and short-wavelength acoustical vibrations…