The race to the bottom: approaching the ideal glass?

Abstract

Key to resolving the scientific challenge of the glass transition is to understand the origin of the massive increase in viscosity of liquids cooled below their melting temperature (avoiding crystallisation). A number of competing and often mutually exclusive theoretical approaches have been advanced to describe this phenomenon. Some posit a bona fide thermodynamic phase to an "ideal glass", an amorphous state with exceptionally low entropy. Other approaches are built around the concept of the glass transition as a primarily dynamic phenomenon. These fundamentally different interpretations give equally good descriptions of the data available, so it is hard to determine which -- if any -- is correct. Recently however this situation has begun to change. A consensus has emerged that one powerful means to resolve this longstanding question is to approach the putative thermodynamic transition sufficiently closely, and a number of techniques have emerged to meet this challenge. Here we review the results of some of these new techniques and discuss the implications for the existence -- or otherwise -- of the thermodynamic transition to an ideal glass.

42 pages

References in corpus (126)

• Exchange Monte Carlo Method and Application to Spin Glass Simulations
• Theoretical perspective on the glass transition and amorphous materials
• The large deviation approach to statistical mechanics
• Parallel Tempering: Theory, Applications, and New Perspectives
• Dynamical heterogeneities in a supercooled Lennard-Jones liquid
• String-like Clusters and Cooperative Motion in a Model Glass-Forming Liquid
• Direct experimental evidence of a growing length scale accompanying the glass transition
• Supercooled Liquids for Pedestrians
• Theory of Structural Glasses and Supercooled Liquids
• Glassy dynamics of kinetically constrained models
• Mean field theory of hard sphere glasses and jamming
• Strong scaling of general-purpose molecular dynamics simulations on GPUs
• The Physics of the Colloidal Glass Transition
• Two-step melting in two dimensions: First-order liquid-hexatic transition
• Colloidal Gels: Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium Routes
• Dynamics on the Way to Forming Glass: Bubbles in Space-time
• Fractal free energy landscapes in structural glasses
• The role of local structure in dynamical arrest
• On the Adam-Gibbs-Wolynes scenario for the viscosity increase in glasses
• Inherent Structure Entropy of Supercooled Liquids
• Dynamic first-order phase transition in kinetically constrained models of glasses
• The frustration-based approach of supercooled liquids and the glass transition: a review and critical assessment
• Perspective: The Glass Transition
• Current fluctuations in non-equilibrium diffusive systems: an additivity principle
• Thermodynamic signature of growing amorphous order in glass-forming liquids
• Probing the equilibrium dynamics of colloidal hard spheres above the mode-coupling glass transition
• Models and algorithms for the next generation of glass transition studies
• Direct evaluation of large-deviation functions
• Crossover to Potential Energy Landscape Dominated Dynamics in a Model Glass-forming Liquid
• Inhomogeneous Mode-Coupling Theory and Growing Dynamic Length in Supercooled Liquids
• Mode-Coupling Theory (MCT) Lecture Notes
• Glass and Jamming Transitions: From Exact Results to Finite-Dimensional Descriptions
• Roles of icosahedral and crystal-like order in hard spheres glass transition
• Growing length and time scales in glass forming liquids
• Spatial correlations in the dynamics of glassforming liquids: Experimental determination of their temperature dependence
• Perspective: Highly stable vapor-deposited glasses
• Spontaneous and induced dynamic fluctuations in glass-formers I: General results and dependence on ensemble and dynamics
• Rigorous Inequalities between Length and Time Scales in Glassy Systems
• Space-time Thermodynamics of the Glass Transition
• Corresponding States of Structural Glass Formers
• The glass transition of dense fluids of hard and compressible spheres
• Free Energy Functional for Nonequilibrium Systems: An Exactly Solvable Case
• On nonlinear susceptibility in supercooled liquids
• Event-chain Monte Carlo algorithms for hard-sphere systems
• Fast Monte Carlo algorithm for supercooled soft spheres
• Ideal Glass Transitions by Random Pinning
• Energy Barriers and Activated Dynamics in a Supercooled Lennard-Jones Liquid
• Understanding fragility in supercooled Lennard-Jones mixtures. I. Locally preferred structures
• Static point-to-set correlations in glass-forming liquids
• Dynamic criticality in glass-forming liquids
• Facets of glass physics
• Spontaneous and induced dynamic correlations in glass-formers II: Model calculations and comparison to numerical simulations
• Equilibrium sampling of hard spheres up to the jamming density and beyond
• On the surface of glasses
• Fundamental differences between glassy dynamics in two and three dimensions
• Computer simulations of the two-dimensional melting transition using hard disks
• Democratic particle motion for meta-basin transitions in simple glass-formers
• Nonperturbative effect of attractive forces in viscous liquids
• Relaxation decoupling in metallic glassy state
• Generalized event-chain Monte Carlo: Constructing rejection-free global-balance algorithms from infinitesimal steps
• Growing point-to-set length scale correlates with growing relaxation times in model supercooled liquids
• Suppression of tunneling two-level systems in ultrastable glasses of indomethacin
• Configurational entropy measurements in extremely supercooled liquids that break the glass ceiling
• Unified Theory of Activated Relaxation in Liquids over 14 Decades in Time
• Rejection-free Monte-Carlo sampling for general potentials
• Probing a liquid to glass transition in equilibrium
• Equilibrium phase diagram of a randomly pinned glass-former
• Identification of long-lived clusters and their link to slow dynamics in a model glass former
• Zero-temperature glass transition in two dimensions
• Mosaic multi-state scenario vs. one-state description of supercooled liquids
• Correlation of Local Order with Particle Mobility in Supercooled Liquids is Highly System Dependent
• Geometrical Frustration and Static Correlations in a Simple Glass Former
• Two-Level Systems and Boson Peak Remain Stable in 110-Million-Year-Old Amber Glass
• Growing Dynamical Facilitation on Approaching the Random Pinning Colloidal Glass Transition
• Finite-temperature critical point of a glass transition
• RUMD: A general purpose molecular dynamics package optimized to utilize GPU hardware down to a few thousand particles
• Information-theoretic measurements of coupling between structure and dynamics in glass-formers
• Model Vapor-Deposited Glasses: Growth Front and Composition Effects
• Specific Heats Cp, Cv, Cconf. and energy landscapes of glassforming liquids
• Influence of the glass transition on the liquid-gas spinodal decomposition
• Does a growing static length scale control the glass transition?
• Origin of ultrastability in vapor-deposited glasses
• Intermittent dynamics and logarithmic domain growth during the spinodal decomposition of a glass-forming liquid
• Decorrelation of the static and dynamic length scales in hard-sphere glass-formers
• Exploring the complex free energy landscape of the simplest glass by rheology
• Analysis of a growing dynamic length scale in a glass-forming binary hard-sphere mixture
• Microscopic dynamics of supercooled liquids from first principles
• Probing a critical length scale at the glass transition
• Lifetimes and Lengthscales of Structural Motifs in a Model Glassformer
• Strong geometric frustration in model glassformers
• Structure and kinetics in the freezing of nearly hard spheres
• Constrained dynamics of localized excitations causes a non-equilibrium phase transition in an atomistic model of glass formers
• Random Pinning Glass Model
• Dynamic heterogeneities above and below the mode-coupling temperature. Evidence of a dynamic crossover
• Theory for Swap Acceleration near the Glass and Jamming Transitions
• Numerical determination of the exponents controlling the relationship between time, length and temperature in glass-forming liquids
• Assessing the role of static lengthscales behind glassy dynamics in polydisperse hard disks
• Deconstructing the glass transition through critical experiments on colloids
• Random Pinning Glass Transition: Hallmarks, Mean-Field Theory and Renormalization Group Analysis
• Non-Equilibrium Phase Transition in an Atomistic Glassformer: the Connection to Thermodynamics
• Mean field theory of the swap Monte Carlo algorithm
• Importance of many-body correlations in glass transition: an example from polydisperse hard spheres
• Age and Structure of a Model Vapor-Deposited Glass
• Disappearance of the hexatic phase in a binary mixture of hard disks
• Probing equilibrium glass flow up to exapoise viscosities
• Reaching the ideal glass transition by aging polymer films
• Experimental Evidence for a Structural-Dynamical Transition in Trajectory Space
• From glass formation to icosahedral ordering by curving three-dimensional space
• Geometrical Frustration and Static Correlations in Hard-Sphere Glass Formers
• Locally favoured structures and dynamic length scales in a simple glass-former
• Using mutual information to measure order in model glass-formers
• Patch-repetition correlation length in glassy systems
• Experimental Determination of Configurational Entropy in a Two-Dimensional Liquid under Random Pinning
• Investigating amorphous order in stable glasses by random pinning
• Structural-dynamical transition in the Wahnström mixture
• Direct measurements of the dynamical correlation length indicate its divergence at an athermal glass transition
• A theory for the dynamics of glassy mixtures with particle size swaps
• Flexible confinement leads to multiple relaxation regimes in glassy colloidal liquids
• Structure of inactive states of a binary Lennard-Jones mixture
• Large deviations and heterogeneities in a driven kinetically constrained model
• Recasting a model atomistic glassformer as a system of icosahedra
• Linking dynamical heterogeneity to static amorphous order
• The nature of the glass and gel transitions in sticky spheres
• Influence of an amorphous wall on the distribution of localized excitations in a colloidal glass-forming liquid
• Event-driven Monte Carlo algorithm for general potentials
• Kovacs effect and the relation between glasses and supercooled liquids

Cited by in corpus (23)

• Perspective: Configurational entropy of glass-forming liquids
• Colloidal Hard Spheres: Triumphs, Challenges and Mysteries
• Active glasses
• Does the Adam-Gibbs relation hold in simulated supercooled liquids?
• Ultrastable metallic glasses in silico
• Real Space Analysis of Colloidal Gels: Triumphs, Challenges and Future Directions
• How to "measure" a structural relaxation time that is too long to be measured?
• A localization transition underlies the mode-coupling crossover of glasses
• Crystalline clusters in mW water: stability, growth, and grain boundaries
• Bypassing sluggishness: SWAP algorithm and glassiness in high dimensions
• The glass transition in molecules, colloids and grains: universality and specificity
• Interpretation of the apparent activation energy of glass transition
• Dynamical coexistence in moderately polydisperse hard-sphere glasses
• Structural signatures of ultrastability in a deposited glassformer
• Waiting-time dependent non-equilibrium phase diagram of simple glass- and gel-forming liquids
• The Devil is in the details: Pentagonal bipyramids and dynamic arrest
• Exploring canyons in glassy energy landscapes using metadynamics
• Modeling non-linear dielectric susceptibilities of supercooled molecular liquids
• Ideal noncrystals: A possible new class of ordered matter without apparent broken symmetry
• Possible instability of one-step replica symmetry breaking in p-spin Ising models outside mean-field theory
• The Ideal Glass and the Ideal Disk Packing in Two Dimensions
• Universal behavior of the apparent fragility in ultraslow glass forming systems
• Dynamical Phase Transitions and their Relation to Thermodynamic Glass Physics