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Despite two decades of studies, the formation of metallic glasses, very promising systems for industrial applications, still remains mostly unexplained. This lack of knowledge hinders the search for new systems, still performed with…

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…

It is often stated that if one is presented with a snapshot of the positions of the molecules of a glass and one of a liquid, one is unable to tell the difference. Here we argue instead that given several such snapshots taken over a…

Whereas knowledge of a crystalline material's unit cell is fundamental to understanding the material's properties and behavior, there are not obvious analogues to unit cells for disordered materials despite the frequent existence of…

We present in this letter a model of glass formation using energy barriers and a crystal nucleation process. We then analyze the corresponding dynamical equation in the vicinity of the stationary solutions. The occurence of a pure amorphous…

The high cooling rate needed for preparing the metallic glass (MG) makes the nonequilibrium nature of glass formation more prominent and requires a better quenching technique than ever before. Here, we formulate the cooling process in an…

Liquids relax extremely slowly upon approaching the glass state. One explanation is that an entropy crisis, due to the rarefaction of available states, makes it increasingly arduous to reach equilibrium in that regime. Validating this…

The nature of an atom in a bonded structure -- such as in molecules, in nanoparticles or solids, at surfaces or interfaces -- depends on its local atomic environment. In atomic-scale modeling and simulation, identifying groups of atoms with…

One of the greatest challenges facing our society is the discovery of new innovative crystal materials with specific properties. Recently, the problem of generating crystal materials has received increasing attention, however, it remains…

The process of homogeneous crystal nucleation has been considered in a model liquid, where the interparticle interaction is described by a short-range spherical oscillatory potential. Mechanisms of initiating structural ordering in the…

Topological constraint theory has become an increasingly popular tool to predict the compositional dependence of glass properties or pinpoint promising compositions with tailored functionalities. This approach reduces complex disordered…

Durable interest in developing a framework for the detailed structure of glassy materials has produced numerous structural descriptors that trade off between general applicability and interpretability. However, none approach the combination…

The configurational entropy is one of the most important thermodynamic quantities characterizing supercooled liquids approaching the glass transition. Despite decades of experimental, theoretical, and computational investigation, a widely…

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…

We propose and numerically implement a local probe of the static self-induced heterogeneity characterizing glass-forming liquids. The method relies on the equilibrium statistics of the overlap between pairs of configurations measured in…

By the adoption of a quaternion orientational order parameter to describe solidification, the topological origins of the thermal transport properties of crystalline and non-crystalline solid states are considered herein. Global…

Network glasses are the physical prototype for many self-organized systems, ranging from proteins to computer science. Conventional theories of gases, liquids, and crystals do not account for the strongly material-selective character of the…

Finding an optimal match between two different crystal structures underpins many important materials science problems, including describing solid-solid phase transitions, developing models for interface and grain boundary structures. In…

Using positional data from video-microscopy of a two-dimensional colloidal system and from simulations of hard discs we determine the wave-vector-dependent normal mode spring constants in the supercooled fluid and glassy state,…

Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are amorphous alloys with desirable mechanical properties and processing capabilities. To date, the design of new BMGs has largely employed empirical rules and trial-and-error experimental approaches. Ab initio…