176 research outputs found
The role of attractive forces in viscous liquids
We present evidence from computer simulation that the slowdown of relaxation
of a standard Lennard-Jones glass-forming liquid and that of its reduction to a
model with truncated pair potentials without attractive tails is quantitatively
and qualitatively different in the viscous regime. The pair structure of the
two models is however very similar. This finding, which appears to contradict
the common view that the physics of dense liquids is dominated by the steep
repulsive forces between atoms, is characterized in detail, and its
consequences are explored. Beyond the role of attractive forces themselves, a
key aspect in explaining the differences in the dynamical behavior of the two
models is the truncation of the interaction potentials beyond a cutoff at
typical interatomic distance. This leads us to question the ability of the
jamming scenario to describe the physics of glass-forming liquids and polymers.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figure
The viscous slowing down of supercooled liquids as a temperature-controlled superArrhenius activated process: a description in terms of frustration-limited domains
We propose that the salient feature to be explained about the glass
transition of supercooled liquids is the temperature-controlled superArrhenius
activated nature of the viscous slowing down, more strikingly seen in
weakly-bonded, fragile systems. In the light of this observation, the relevance
of simple models of spherically interacting particles and that of models based
on free-volume congested dynamics are questioned. Finally, we discuss how the
main aspects of the phenomenology of supercooled liquids, including the
crossover from Arrhenius to superArrhenius activated behavior and the
heterogeneous character of the relaxation, can be described by an
approach based on frustration-limited domains.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, accepted in J. Phys.: Condensed Matter,
proceedings of the Trieste workshop on "Unifying Concepts in Glass Physics
Microphase Separation and modulated phases in a Coulomb frustrated Ising ferromagnet
We study a 3-dimensional Ising model in which the tendency to order due to
short-range ferromagnetic interactions is frustrated by competing long-range
(Coulombic) interactions. Complete ferromagnetic ordering is impossible for any
nonzero value of the frustration parameter, but the system displays a variety
of phases characterized by periodically modulated structures. We have performed
extensive Monte-Carlo simulations which provide strong evidence that the
microphase separation transition between paramagnetic and modulated phases is a
fluctuation-induced first-order transition. Additional transitions to various
commensurate phases may also occur when further lowering the temperature.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted in Europhys. Letter
A unified picture of ferromagnetism, quasi-long range order and criticality in random field models
By applying the recently developed nonperturbative functional renormalization
group (FRG) approach, we study the interplay between ferromagnetism, quasi-long
range order (QLRO) and criticality in the -dimensional random field O(N)
model in the whole (, ) diagram. Even though the "dimensional reduction"
property breaks down below some critical line, the topology of the phase
diagram is found similar to that of the pure O(N) model, with however no
equivalent of the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. In addition, we obtain that
QLRO, namely a topologically ordered "Bragg glass" phase, is absent in the
3--dimensional random field XY model. The nonperturbative results are
supplemented by a perturbative FRG analysis to two loops around .Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Two-loop Functional Renormalization Group of the Random Field and Random Anisotropy O(N) Models
We study by the perturbative Functional Renormalization Group (FRG) the
Random Field and Random Anisotropy O(N) models near , the lower critical
dimension of ferromagnetism. The long-distance physics is controlled by
zero-temperature fixed points at which the renormalized effective action is
nonanalytic. We obtain the beta functions at 2-loop order, showing that despite
the nonanalytic character of the renormalized effective action, the theory is
perturbatively renormalizable at this order. The physical results obtained at
2-loop level, most notably concerning the breakdown of dimensional reduction at
the critical point and the stability of quasi-long range order in , are
shown to fit into the picture predicted by our recent non-perturbative FRG
approach.Comment: 19 pages, 20 figures. Minor correction
Nonperturbative Functional Renormalization Group for Random Field Models. III: Superfield formalism and ground-state dominance
We reformulate the nonperturbative functional renormalization group for the
random field Ising model in a superfield formalism, extending the
supersymmetric description of the critical behavior of the system first
proposed by Parisi and Sourlas [Phys. Rev. Lett. 43, 744 (1979)]. We show that
the two crucial ingredients for this extension are the introduction of a
weighting factor, which accounts for ground-state dominance when multiple
metastable states are present, and of multiple copies of the original system,
which allows one to access the full functional dependence of the cumulants of
the renormalized disorder and to describe rare events. We then derive exact
renormalization group equations for the flow of the renormalized cumulants
associated with the effective average action.Comment: 28 page
Glass transition in granular media
In the framework of schematic hard spheres lattice models for granular media
we investigate the phenomenon of the ``jamming transition''. In particular,
using Edwards' approach, by analytical calculations at a mean field level, we
derive the system phase diagram and show that ``jamming'' corresponds to a
phase transition from a ``fluid'' to a ``glassy'' phase, observed when
crystallization is avoided. Interestingly, the nature of such a ``glassy''
phase turns out to be the same found in mean field models for glass formers.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Geometrical Frustration and Static Correlations in Hard-Sphere Glass Formers
We analytically and numerically characterize the structure of hard-sphere
fluids in order to review various geometrical frustration scenarios of the
glass transition. We find generalized polytetrahedral order to be correlated
with increasing fluid packing fraction, but to become increasingly irrelevant
with increasing dimension. We also find the growth in structural correlations
to be modest in the dynamical regime accessible to computer simulations.Comment: 21 pages; part of the "Special Topic Issue on the Glass Transition
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