2 research outputs found
Quantum fluctuations can promote or inhibit glass formation
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 appears barely different than that of the liquid that produced it.
Quantum mechanical systems ranging from electron liquids to superfluid helium
appear to form glasses, but as yet no unifying framework exists connecting
classical and quantum regimes of vitrification. Here we develop new insights
from theory and simulation into the quantum glass transition that surprisingly
reveal distinct regions where quantum fluctuations can either promote or
inhibit glass formation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Nature Physics. 22 pages, 3 figures, 1
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