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We study the quantum version of a lattice model whose classical counterpart captures the physics of structural glasses. We discuss the role of quantum fluctuations in such systems and in particular their interplay with the amorphous order…
Extending mode-coupling theory, we elaborate a microscopic theory for the glass transition of liquids confined between two parallel flat hard walls. The theory contains the standard MCT equations in bulk and in two dimensions as limiting…
Recent measurements on ion conducting glasses have revealed that conductivity spectra for various temperatures and ionic concentrations can be superimposed onto a common master curve by an appropriate rescaling of the conductivity and…
The connectivity of the potential energy landscape in supercooled atomic liquids is investigated through the calculation of the instantaneous normal modes spectrum and a detailed analysis of the unstable directions in configuration space.…
The Earth is well-known to be, in the current astronomical configuration, in a regime where two asymptotic states can be realised. The warm state we live in is in competition with the ice-covered snowball state. The bistability exists as a…
One of the general mechanisms that give rise to the slow cooperative relaxation characteristic of classical glasses is the presence of kinetic constraints in the dynamics. Here we show that dynamical constraints can similarly lead to slow…
We consider a Hamiltonian system made of $N$ classical particles moving in two dimensions, coupled via an {\it infinite-range interaction} gauged by a parameter $A$. This system shows a low energy phase with most of the particles trapped in…
We here discuss the results of 3d MonteCarlo simulations of a minimal lattice model for gelling systems. We focus on the dynamics, investigated by means of the time autocorrelation function of the density fluctuations and the particle mean…
Rare transitions between long-lived metastable states underlie a great variety of physical, chemical and biological processes. Our quantitative understanding of reactive mechanisms has been driven forward by the insights of transition state…
Many of the large structures of the cell, such as the cytoskeleton, are assembled and maintained far from equilibrium. We study the stabilities of various structures for a simple model of such a far-from-equilibrium organized assembly in…
In this note we discuss metastability in a long-but-finite range disordered model for the glass transition. We show that relaxation is dominated by configuration belonging to metastable states and associate an in principle computable…
We discuss the dynamics of finite systems within molecular dynamics models. Signatures of a critical behavior are analyzed and compared to experimental data both in nucleus-nucleus and metallic cluster collisions. We suggest the possibility…
Quantum tunneling is a phenomenon in which a quantum state traverses energy barriers above the energy of the state itself. Tunneling has been hypothesized as an advantageous physical resource for optimization. Here we present the first…
Low-temperature dynamics of insulating glasses is dominated by a macroscopic concentration of tunneling two-level systems (TTLS). The distribution of the switching/relaxation rates of TTLS is exponentially broad, which results in…
When liquids are classified using Tg -scaled Arrhenius plots of relaxation times (or relative rates of entropy increase above Tg) across a "strong-fragile" spectrum of behaviors, the "strong" liquids have always appeared rather…
The maximum likelihood state for a simplified stochastic thermohaline circulation model is investigated. It is shown that a jump occurs for the maximum likelihood state during transitions between two metastable states. The jump helps to…
Supercooled liquid state is a particularly interesting state in that it exhibits several unusual physical properties. To illustrate, the liquid displays a single peak relaxation frequency at high temperatures, which splits into $\alpha$…
In this work, we study the nature of transitions between inherent structures of a two-dimensional model supercooled liquid. We demonstrate that these transitions occur predominately along a small number of directions on the energy…
We employ the Distance Matrix method to investigate metabasin dynamics in supercooled water. We find that the motion of the system consists in the exploration of a finite region of configuration space (enclosing several distinct local…
We use molecular dynamics with an embedded atom potential to study the behavior of palladium nanoclusters near the melting point in the microcanonical ensemble. We see transitions from both fcc and decahedral ground state structures to…