Related papers: Competition between Barrier- and Entropy-Driven Ac…
A mesoscopic model is proposed to explain the anomalous dynamics in a supercooled liquid as its glass transition temperature is approached from above. The model is based on the assumption of $\beta$ organized $\alpha$ process, with the…
Orientational relaxation (OR) in a viscous, glassy liquid is investigated by carrying out extensive NPT molecular dynamics simulations of isolated ellipsoids in a glass forming binary mixture. Near the glass transition, the OR occurs mainly…
We propose a microscopic model without energy barriers in order to explain some generic features observed in structural glasses. The statics can be exactly solved while the dynamics has been clarified using Monte Carlo calculations.…
We present a simple mathematical framework for the description of the dynamics of glassy systems in terms of a random walk in a complex energy landscape pictured as a network of minima. We show how to use the tools developed for the study…
Recent experiments and simulations have revealed glassy features in the cytoplasm, living tissues as well as dense assemblies of self propelled colloids. This leads to a fundamental question: how do these non-equilibrium (active) amorphous…
Using the potential energy landscape formalism we show that, in the temperature range in which the dynamics of a glass forming system is thermally activated, there exists a unique set of "basis glass states" each of which is confined to a…
Trap models describe glassy dynamics as a stochastic process on a network of configurations representing local energy minima. We study within this class the paradigmatic Barrat-M\'ezard model, which has Glauber transition rates. Our focus…
The physics of highly excited Rydberg atoms is governed by blockade or exclusion interactions that hinder the excitation of atoms in the proximity of a previously excited one. This leads to cooperative effects and a relaxation dynamics…
The dramatic slowing down of relaxation dynamics of liquids approaching the glass transition remains a highly debated problem, where the crux of the puzzle resides in the elusive increase of the activation barrier $\Delta E(T)$ with…
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…
We discuss the low-temperature dynamics of an elastic manifold driven through a random medium. For driving forces well below the $T=0$ depinning force, the medium advances via thermally activated hops over the energy barriers separating…
Energy barriers determine the dynamics in many physical systems like structural glasses, disordered spin systems or proteins. Here we present an approach, which is based on subdividing the configuration space in a hierarchical manner,…
We examine the structural relaxation of glassy materials at finite temperatures, considering the effect of activated rearrangements and long-range elastic interactions. Our three-dimensional mesoscopic relaxation model shows how the…
Recent observations demonstrate that densely packed tissues exhibit features of glassy dynamics, such as caging behavior and dynamical heterogeneities, although it has remained unclear how single-cell properties control this behavior. Here…
Generic glass formers exhibit at least two characteristic changes in their relaxation behavior, first to an Arrhenius-type relaxation at some characteristic temperature, and then at a lower characteristic temperature to a super-Arrhenius…
As liquids approach the glass transition temperature, dynamical heterogeneity emerges as a crucial universal feature of their behavior. Dynamic facilitation, where local motion triggers further motion nearby, plays a major role in this…
Dense active matter is gaining widespread interest due to its remarkable similarity with conventional glass-forming materials. However, active matter is inherently out-of-equilibrium and even simple models such as active Brownian particles…
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 study at- and out-of-equilibrium dynamics of a single homopolymer chain at low temperature using molecular dynamics simulations. The main quantities of interest are the average root mean square displacement of the monomers below the…
Dense active systems are widespread in nature, examples range from bacterial colonies to biological tissues. Dense clusters of active particles can be obtained by increasing the packing fraction of the system or taking advantage of a…