4 January, 2010
What is there to be explained about glasses and glassformers? Facts, questions, views
Abstract
In my first lecture I discuss glasses, glassformers and glass formation. I first address the question of what is meant by a "glass" or a "glassy" system? I introduce commonly invoked properties to characterize such systems: jammed/arrested/solid-like state, disordered state, out-of-equilibrium state. I briefly describe and tentatively classify the variety of glasses.
I then consider ways of forming glassy states. Focusing next on the "standard glasses" formed by cooling from a liquid or a melt, I stress the diversity of questions and of views, which depend on the temperature regime of interest; with increasing temperature: low-T (cryogenic) anomalous properties of glasses; aging and nonlinear rheology in glasses; transformation region; supercooled liquid, viscous slowing down and glass transition; avoidance of crystallization. Finally I discuss the possible control parameters for glass formation and the notion of jamming.
In my next lecture, I specialize my presentation to supercooled liquids and the glass transition. I describe the salient properties of supercooled liquids. What is there to be explained ? Again, I will stress the diversity of views. I then discuss a selection (my selection) of questions concerning the slowing down of relaxation that lead to glass formation.
References and suggested reading
- Collection of overviews (Tarjus-Kivelson on supercooled liquids, Durian-Liu on colloidal suspensions, Kurchan on aging and rheology,...) in Jamming and Rheology, A. J. Liu and S.R. Nagel Eds (Taylor and Francis, London, 2001).
- M.D. Ediger, C. A. Angell and R. Nagel, Supercooled liquids and glasses, J. Phys. Chem 100, 13200 (1996).
- S. A. Kivelson and G. Tarjus, In search of a theory of supercooled liquids, Nature materials 7, 831 (2008).
- L. Berthier and G. Biroli, Glasses and aging: A statistical Mechanics perspective, Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science, 2009 (available from Ludovic Berthier webpage).
- Collection of overviews in Slow relaxations and nonequilibrium dynamics in condensed matter, J.-L. Barrat et al. Eds. (EDP Sciences- Springer Verlag, 2003).