Dynamical arrest, tracer diffusion and Kinetically Constrained Lattice Gases

We analyze the tagged particle diffusion for kinetically constrained models for glassy systems. We present a method, focusing on the Kob-Andersen model as an example, which allows to prove lower and upper bounds for the self diffusion coefficient $D_S$. This method leads to the exact density dependence of $D_{S}$, at high density, for models with finite defects and to prove diffusivity, $D_{S}>0$, at any finite density for highly cooperative models. A more general outcome is that under very general assumptions one can exclude that a dynamical transition, like the one predicted by the Mode-Coupling-Theory of glasses, takes place at a finite temperature/chemical potential for systems of interacting particles on a lattice.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figure

Random Pinning Glass Transition: Hallmarks, Mean-Field Theory and Renormalization Group Analysis

We present a detailed analysis of glass transitions induced by pinning particles at random from an equilibrium configuration. We first develop a mean-field analysis based on the study of p-spin spherical disordered models and then obtain the three dimensional critical behavior by the Migdal-Kadanoff real space renormalization group method. We unveil the important physical differences with the case in which particles are pinned from a random (or very high temperature) configuration. We contrast the pinning particles approach to the ones based on biasing dynamical trajectories with respect to their activity and on coupling to equilibrium configurations. Finally, we discuss numerical and experimental tests.Comment: Submitted for publication in J. Chem. Phys. for the special topic issue on the glass transition. 28 Page

Spiral Model: a cellular automaton with a discontinuous glass transition

We introduce a new class of two-dimensional cellular automata with a bootstrap percolation-like dynamics. Each site can be either empty or occupied by a single particle and the dynamics follows a deterministic updating rule at discrete times which allows only emptying sites. We prove that the threshold density $\rho_c$ for convergence to a completely empty configuration is non trivial, $0<\rho_c<1$, contrary to standard bootstrap percolation. Furthermore we prove that in the subcritical regime, $\rho<\rho_c$, emptying always occurs exponentially fast and that $\rho_c$ coincides with the critical density for two-dimensional oriented site percolation on \bZ^2. This is known to occur also for some cellular automata with oriented rules for which the transition is continuous in the value of the asymptotic density and the crossover length determining finite size effects diverges as a power law when the critical density is approached from below. Instead for our model we prove that the transition is {\it discontinuous} and at the same time the crossover length diverges {\it faster than any power law}. The proofs of the discontinuity and the lower bound on the crossover length use a conjecture on the critical behaviour for oriented percolation. The latter is supported by several numerical simulations and by analytical (though non rigorous) works through renormalization techniques. Finally, we will discuss why, due to the peculiar {\it mixed critical/first order character} of this transition, the model is particularly relevant to study glassy and jamming transitions. Indeed, we will show that it leads to a dynamical glass transition for a Kinetically Constrained Spin Model. Most of the results that we present are the rigorous proofs of physical arguments developed in a joint work with D.S.Fisher.Comment: 42 pages, 11 figure

Fluctuations and shape of cooperative rearranging regions in glass-forming liquids

We develop a theory of amorphous interfaces in glass-forming liquids. We show that the statistical properties of these surfaces, which separate regions characterized by different amorphous arrangements of particles, coincide with the ones of domain walls in the random field Ising model. A major consequence of our results is that supercooled liquids are characterized by two different static lengths: the point-to-set ξPS, which is a measure of the spatial extent of cooperative rearranging regions, and the wandering length ξ⊥, which is related to the fluctuations of their shape. We find that ξ⊥ grows when approaching the glass transition but slower than ξPS. The wandering length increases as s−1/2c, where sc is the configurational entropy. Our results strengthen the relationship with the random field Ising model found in recent works. They are in agreement with previous numerical studies of amorphous interfaces and provide a theoretical framework for explaining numerical and experimental findings on pinned particle systems and static lengths in glass-forming liquids

Breakdown of Elasticity in Amorphous Solids

What characterises a solid is its way to respond to external stresses. Ordered solids, such crystals, display an elastic regime followed by a plastic one, both well understood microscopically in terms of lattice distortion and dislocations. For amorphous solids the situation is instead less clear, and the microscopic understanding of the response to deformation and stress is a very active research topic. Several studies have revealed that even in the elastic regime the response is very jerky at low temperature, resembling very much the one of disordered magnetic materials. Here we show that in a very large class of amorphous solids this behaviour emerges by decreasing the temperature as a phase transition where standard elastic behaviour breaks down. At the transition all non-linear elastic modulii diverge and standard elasticity theory does not hold anymore. Below the transition the response to deformation becomes history and time-dependent.Comment: 3 figure