No Arabic abstract
The ac nonlinear dielectric response $chi_3(omega,T)$ of glycerol was measured close to its glass transition temperature $T_g$ to investigate the prediction that supercooled liquids respond in an increasingly non-linear way as the dynamics slows down (as spin-glasses do). We find that $chi_3(omega,T)$ indeed displays several non trivial features. It is peaked as a function of the frequency $omega$ and obeys scaling as a function of $omega tau(T)$, with $tau(T)$ the relaxation time of the liquid. The height of the peak, proportional to the number of dynamically correlated molecules $N_{corr}(T)$, increases as the system becomes glassy, and $chi_3$ decays as a power-law of $omega$ over several decades beyond the peak. These findings confirm the collective nature of the glassy dynamics and provide the first direct estimate of the $T$ dependence of $N_{corr}$.
We investigate the dynamics of a driven system of dissipative hard spheres in the framework of mode-coupling theory. The dissipation is modeled by normal restitution, and driving is applied to individual particles in the bulk. In such a system, a glass transition is predicted for a finite transition density. For increasing inelasticity, the transition shifts to higher densities. Despite the strong driving at high dissipation, the transition persists up to the limit of totally inelastic normal restitution.
The question about the existence of a structural glass transition in two dimensions is studied using mode coupling theory (MCT). We determine the explicit d-dependence of the memory functional of mode coupling for one-component systems. Applied to two dimensions we solve the MCT equations numerically for monodisperse hard discs. A dynamic glass transition is found at a critical packing fraction phi_c^{d=2} = 0.697 which is above phi_c^{d=3} = 0.516 by about 35%. phi^d_c scales approximately with phi^d_{rm rcp} the value for random close packing, at least for d=2, 3. Quantities characterizing the local, cooperative cage motion do not differ much for d=2 and d=3, and we e.g. find the Lindemann criterion for the localization length at the glass transition. The final relaxation obeys the superposition principle, collapsing remarkably well onto a Kohlrausch law. The d=2 MCT results are in qualitative agreement with existing results from MC and MD simulations. The mean squared displacements measured experimentally for a quasi-two-dimensional binary system of dipolar hard spheres can be described satisfactorily by MCT for monodisperse hard discs over four decades in time provided the experimental control parameter Gamma (which measures the strength of dipolar interactions) and the packing fraction phi are properly related to each other.
A theory for the non-local shear stress correlations in supercooled liquids is derived from first principles. It captures the crossover from viscous to elastic dynamics at an idealized liquid to glass transition and explains the emergence of long-ranged stress correlations in glass, as expected from classical continuum elasticity. The long-ranged stress correlations can be traced to the coupling of shear stress to transverse momentum, which is ignored in the classic Maxwell model. To rescue this widely used model, we suggest a generalization in terms of a single relaxation time $tau$ for the fast degrees of freedom only. This generalized Maxwell model implies a divergent correlation length $xiproptotau$ as well as dynamic critical scaling and correctly accounts for the far-field stress correlations. It can be rephrased in terms of generalized hydrodynamic equations, which naturally couple stress and momentum and furthermore allow to connect to fluidity and elasto-plastic models.
A glass is a non-equilibrium thermodynamic state whose physical properties depend on time. Glass formation from the melt, as well as the inverse process of liquid structural recovery from the glass are non-equilibrium processes. A positive amount of entropy is produced during such irreversible processes. In this paper, we address the issue of the determination of entropy production during glass transition. Firstly, we theoretically determine the entropy production by means of the statistical model of a two-level system coupled to a master equation driving the time dependency of the occupancy probability of each state. Thermodynamic cycles of the type liquid-glass-liquid are considered in order to test the validity of the Clausius theorem. Secondly, we determine experimentally the production of entropy from differential scanning calorimetry experiments on the PolyVinylAcetate glass-former. Aging experiments are also considered. From the data treatments proposed here, we are able to determine the rate of production of entropy in each part of the experiments. Although being on the order of few % or less of the configurational entropy involved in the glass formation, the positive production of entropy is clearly determined. For all the thermodynamic cycles considered in these calorimetric experiments, the Clausius theorem is fulfilled.
By combining aspects of the coherent and self intermediate scattering functions, measured by dynamical light scattering on a suspension of hard sphere-like particles, we show that the arrest of particle number density fluctuations spreads from the position of the main structure factor peak. Taking the velocity auto-correlation function into account we propose that as density fluctuations are arrested the systems ability to respond to diffusing momentum currents is impaired and, accordingly, the viscosity increases. From the stretching of the coherent intermediate scattering function we read a quantitative manifestation of the undissipated thermal energy, the source of those, ergodicity restoring, processes that short-circuit the sharp transition to a perfect glass.