On the Mechanism of Activated Transport in Glassy Liquids

Vassiliy Lubchenko; Pyotr Rabochiy

Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 1409.7636

On the Mechanism of Activated Transport in Glassy Liquids

Vassiliy Lubchenko·Pyotr Rabochiy

View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We explore several potential issues that have been raised over the years regarding the "entropic droplet" scenario of activated transport in liquids, due to Wolynes and coworkers, with the aim of clarifying the status of various approximations of the random first order transition theory (RFOT) of the structural glass transition. In doing so, we estimate the mismatch penalty between alternative aperiodic structures, above the glass transition; the penalty is equal to the typical magnitude of free energy fluctuations in the liquid. The resulting expressions for the activation barrier and the cooperativity length contain exclusively bulk, static properties; in their simplest form they contains only the bulk modulus and the configurational entropy per unit volume. The expressions are universal in that they do not depend explicitly on the molecular detail. The predicted values for the barrier and cooperativity length and, in particular, the temperature dependence of the barrier are in satisfactory agreement with observation. We thus confirm that the entropic droplet picture is indeed not only internally-consistent but is also fully constructive, consistent with the apparent success of its many quantitative predictions. A simple view of a glassy liquid as a locally metastable, degenerate pattern of frozen-in stress emerges in the present description. Finally, we derive testable relationships between the bulk modulus and several characteristics of glassy liquids and peculiarities in low-temperature glasses.

Explore related subjects

cond-mat.dis-nn cond-mat.soft

Keep this discovery

BibTeX RIS

Vassiliy Lubchenko, Pyotr Rabochiy. 2014-12-03. On the Mechanism of Activated Transport in Glassy Liquids. https://arxiv.org/abs/1409.7636

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Irrationality Measure Controls Long-Wavelength Charge Fluctuations in Quasiperiodic Systems

Quasiperiodic order is characterized by irrational frequencies whose rational approximability known as irrationality measure defines distinct arithmetic classes. We establish that this arithmetic classification has direct physical consequences for long-wavelength charge fluctuations. In translation-covariant quasiperiodic systems, the infrared scaling of charge fluctuation is governed by the interplay between the irrationality exponent of irrational frequency and the large-harmonic decay of the hull charge profile: the latter determines the available charge weight, while the former controls how efficiently that weight is transferred to the infrared. Consequently, all algebraic irrational frequencies share the same arithmetic scaling, whereas exceptionally well-approximable transcendental frequencies can exhibit strongly enhanced infrared fluctuation scaling. We further prove that occupied states separated from the Fermi level by a gap stable throughout the hull contribute only an analytic infrared background, leaving the nontrivial scaling to near-Fermi states. Our results extend to general translation-covariant multi-frequency quasiperiodic systems.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2026

Curvature-Induced Geometric Universality in Non-Hermitian Anderson Transitions

In Euclidean space, universality classes of Anderson transitions are primarily determined by symmetry and spatial dimensionality. Here, we present evidence for a geometry-controlled universality class of non-Hermitian Anderson transitions on hyperbolic-like lattices. In this setting, critical behavior is influenced by the large-scale hyperbolic geometry, characterized by negative curvature, exponential volume growth, and a non-Euclidean notion of spatial scaling. Finite-size scaling of participation ratios across several distinct $ \{p,q\} $ tilings reveals one-parameter scaling collapses with a common critical exponent $ \nu\simeq1 $ within numerical accuracy. A complementary phenomenological coarse-grained Landau-Ginzburg analysis shows how exponential correlation-volume growth suppresses critical fluctuations, offering a rationale for the observed mean-field-like scaling. Our results suggest that spatial curvature can act as an additional organizing principle for Anderson-transition universality beyond the conventional dimensionality- and symmetry-based classification.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2026

Finite-rank multiplicative perturbations of rotationally invariant non-Hermitian random matrices

We study finite-rank multiplicative deformations of rotationally invariant non-Hermitian random matrices. More precisely, we consider models of the form $\mathbf{A}(\mathbf{I}+\mathbf{T})$, where $\mathbf{A}$ is a large rotationally invariant non-Hermitian random matrix, $\mathbf{T}$ is a finite-rank normal perturbation, and $\mathbf{I}$ denotes the identity matrix. We characterize the emergence of outlier eigenvalues, their fluctuations, and the associated eigenvector overlaps. Our results provide a multiplicative non-Hermitian counterpart to the classical Baik--Ben Arous--P\'ech\'e framework.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗