Discontinuous shear modulus determines the glass transition temperature
arXiv:1503.08968 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevX.5.041033
Abstract
A solid - amorphous or crystalline - is defined by a finite shear modulus while a fluid lacks such. We thus experimentally investigate the elastic properties of a colloidal glass former near the glass transition: spectroscopy of vibrational excitations yields the dispersion relations of longitudinal and transverse phonons in the glassy state. From the long wavelength limit of the dispersion relation we extract the bulk and the shear modulus. As expected, the latter disappear in a fluid and we measure a clearly resolved discontinuous behaviour of the elastic moduli at the glass transition. This not only determines the transition temperature T_G of the system but also directly addresses recent discussions about elasticity during vitrification. We show that low frequency excitations in our system are plane waves such that continuum elasticity theory can be used to describe the macroscopic behaviour.
8 pages, 6 figures
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- Coarse-Graining of Microscopic Dynamics into Mesoscopic Transient Potential Model
- Inherent-State Melting and the Onset of Glassy Dynamics in Two-Dimensional Supercooled Liquids
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- Isotropic tensor fields in amorphous solids: Correlation functions of displacement and strain tensor fields
- Probing the Local Response of Glass-forming Liquids by Laser Excitations