Related papers: Universal properties of high-frequency spectra in …
The findings of X-ray and neutron scattering experiments on amorphous systems are interpreted within the framework of the theory of Euclidean random matrices. This allows to take into account the topological nature of the disorder, a key…
We study numerically and analytically a simple off-lattice model of scalar harmonic vibrations by means of Euclidean random matrix theory. Since the spectrum of this model shares the most puzzling spectral features with the high-frequency…
We study the spectrum of a system of coupled disordered harmonic oscillators in the thermodynamic limit. This Euclidean random matrix ensemble has been suggested as model for the low-temperature vibrational properties of glass. Exact…
Atomic vibrations in perfect, slightly defective or mixed crystals are to a large extent well understood since many decades. Theoretical descriptions are thus in excellent agreement with the experiments. As a consequence, phonon-related…
We investigate the vibrational properties of topologically disordered materials by analytically studying particles that harmonically oscillate around random positions. Exploiting classical field theory in the thermodynamic limit at $T=0$,…
We study the spectrum of a random matrix, whose elements depend on the Euclidean distance between points randomly distributed in space. This problem is widely studied in the context of the Instantaneous Normal Modes of fluids and is…
It is demonstrated on a realistic model of amorphous alloy Si$_{0.9}$Ge$_{0.1}$ with 1000 atoms, that short-range spectral fluctuations of propagons and diffusons are universal and in agreement with random matrix theory. The universality…
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…
We study small oscillations of highly connected systems, which represent a limit opposite to the more familiar case of disordered crystals. As a concrete example we analyze the vibrational spectra of composite pendula. Remarkably, these…
The topological nature of the disorder of glasses and supercooled liquids strongly affects their high-frequency dynamics. In order to understand its main features, we analytically studied a simple topologically disordered model, where the…
Glasses have a large excess of low-frequency vibrational modes in comparison with crystalline solids. We show that such a feature is a necessary consequence of the geometry generic to weakly connected solids. In particular, we analyze the…
Vibrational spectra of proteins and topologically disordered solids display a common anomaly at low frequencies, known as Boson peak. We show that such feature in globular proteins can be deciphered in terms of an energy landscape picture,…
The low-temperature thermal properties of dielectric crystals are governed by acoustic excitations with large wavelengths that are well described by plane waves. This is the Debye model, which rests on the assumption that the medium is an…
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…
The similarity in atomic structure between liquids and glasses has stimulated a long-standing hypothesis that the nature of glasses may be more fluid like, rather than an apparent solid. In principle, the nature of glasses can be…
Glass-ceramics with nanocrystals present a transparency higher than that expected from the theory of Rayleigh scattering. This ultra-transparency is attributed to the spatial correlation of the nanoparticles. The structure factor is…
The very nature of glass is somewhat mysterious: while relaxation times in glasses are of sufficient magnitude that large-scale motion on the atomic level is essentially as slow as it is in the crystalline state, the structure of glass…
Despite decades of studies on the grand problem of the glass transition the question of well-defined universal patterns, including the key problem of the previtreous behavior of the primary (structural) relaxation time, remains elusive.…
A computation of the dynamical structure factor of topologically disordered systems, where the disorder can be described in terms of euclidean random matrices, is presented. Among others, structural glasses and supercooled liquids belong to…
We have studied both clusters and bulk systems while investigating amorphous states. We have varied the nature of interaction amongst the particles of the system under consideration in order to reveal the possible presence of universality…