Related papers: Extremal fluctuations driving the relaxation in gl…
The theory of glassy fluctuations can be formulated in terms of disordered effective potentials. While the properties of the average potentials are well understood, the study of the fluctuations has been so far quite limited. Close to the…
We show the existence of intermittent dynamics in one of the simplest model of a glassy system: the two-state model, which has been used to explain the origin of the violation of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. The dynamics is analyzed…
We report experimental measurements of particle dynamics in a colloidal glass in order to understand the dynamical heterogeneities associated with the cooperative motion of the particles in the glassy regime. We study the local and global…
The presence of dynamical heterogeneities, i.e. nanometer-scale regions containing molecules rearranging cooperatively at very different rates compared to the bulk, is increasingly being recognized as crucial in our understanding of the…
The presence of strong local fluctuations -- dynamical heterogeneities -- has been observed near the glass transitions of a wide variety of materials. Here we explore the possible presence of universality in those fluctuations. We compare…
By using large-scale molecular dynamics simulations, the dynamics of two-dimensional (2D) supercooled liquids turns out to be dependent on the system size, while the size dependence is not pronounced in three dimensional (3D) systems. It is…
Dynamics of spin-glasses subjected to slow continuous changes of working enviroment such as slow changes of temperature or interaction bonds are studied based on scaling arguments and numerical simulations of continuous bond changes. Such…
We represent the slow, glassy equilibrium dynamics of a line in a two-dimensional random potential landscape as driven by an array of asymptotically independent two-state systems, or loops, fluctuating on all length scales. The assumption…
We analyze the validity of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem for slow relaxation systems in the context of mesoscopic nonequilibrium thermodynamics. We demonstrate that the violation arises as a natural consequence of the elimination of…
Fluctuating pairwise interactions are understood to drive fluid-like states in dense biological systems. These states find a broad range of functionalities, such as directing growth during morphogenesis and forming aggregates with…
Soft solids with tunable mechanical response are at the core of new material technologies, but a crucial limit for applications is their progressive aging over time, which dramatically affects their functionalities. The generally accepted…
A system is glassy when the observation time is much smaller than the equilibration time. A unifying thermodynamic picture of the glassy state is presented. Slow configurational modes are in quasi-equilibrium at an effective temperature. It…
We propose that there exists a generic class of glass forming systems that have competing states (of crystalline order or not) which are locally close in energy to the ground state (which is typically unique). Upon cooling, such systems…
The validity of fluctuation dissipation relations in an aging system is studied in a colloidal glass during the transition from a fluid-like to a solid-like state. The evolution of the rheological and electrical properties is analyzed in…
We propose that the super-Arrhenius relaxation rates observed in glassy materials are determined by thermally nucleated rearrangements of increasing numbers of molecules at decreasing temperatures. In our model of this mechanism,…
A spin glass is a diluted magnetic material in which the magnetic moments are randomly interacting, with a huge number of metastable states which prevent reaching equilibrium. Spin-glass models are conceptually simple, but require very…
The aim of this report is to review a theoretical approach that has been proposed recently to describe dynamic fluctuations in glassy systems (work in collaboration with H. Castillo, C. Chamon, P. Charbonneau, J. L. Iguain, M. Kennett, D.…
A microscopic theory for equilibrium and non equilibrium relaxations in structural glasses is formulated. For all temperatures below the glass transition the dynamics can be asymptotically separated in a $\beta $ - relaxation regime, which…
We review an scenario for the non-equilibrium dynamics of glassy systems that has been motivated by the exact solution of simple models. This approach allows one to set on firmer grounds well-known phenomenological theories. The old ideas…
The fluctuation-dissipation relation (FDR) is measured on the dielectric properties of a gel (Laponite) and of a polymer glass (polycarbonate). For the gel it is found that during the transition from a fluid-like to a solid-like state the…