A single saddle model for the beta-relaxation in supercooled liquids

Abstract

We study the Langevin equation for a single harmonic saddle as an elementary model for the beta-relaxation in supercooled liquids close to Tc. The input of the theory is the spectrum of the eigenvalues of the dominant stationary points at a given temperature. We prove in general the existence of a time-scale t_eps, which is uniquely determined by the spectrum, but is not simply related to the fraction of negative eigenvalues. The mean square displacement develops a plateau of length t_eps, such that a two-step relaxation is obtained if t_eps diverges at Tc. We analyze the specific case of a spectrum with bounded left tail, and show that in this case the mean square displacement has a scaling dependence on time identical to the beta-relaxation regime of Mode Coupling Theory, with power law approach to the plateau and power law divergence of t_eps at Tc.

Revised version

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Supercooled Liquids for Pedestrians
• On the Adam-Gibbs-Wolynes scenario for the viscosity increase in glasses
• Spin-Glass Theory for Pedestrians
• Understanding fragility in supercooled Lennard-Jones mixtures. II. Potential energy surface
• Are there localized saddles behind the heterogeneous dynamics of supercooled liquids?
• Geometrical properties of the potential energy of the soft-sphere binary mixture
• Revisiting the single-saddle model for the $\beta$-relaxation of supercooled liquids