Importance of the 'Higgs' Amplitude Mode in Understanding the "Ideal Glass Transition" and the Kauzmann Entropy Paradox at the Four-Dimensional Crystal/Glass Quantum Critical Point

Abstract

In this article, a theoretical description of the "ideal glass transition" is approached upon the adoption of a quaternion orientational order parameter. Unlike first-order phase transitions of liquids into crystalline solid states, glass transitions are entirely different phenomena that are non-equilibrium and that are highly dependent on the applied cooling rate. Herein, the "ideal glass transition" that occurs at the finite Kauzmann temperature at which point the configurational entropy of an undercooled liquid matches that of its crystalline counterpart is identified as a first-order quantum critical point. We suggest that this quantum critical point belongs to quaternion ordered systems that exist in four- and three-dimensions. The Kauzmann quantum critical point is considered to be a higher-dimensional analogue to the superfluid-to-Mott insulator quantum phase transition, in two- and one-dimensional complex ordered systems. Such quantum critical points are driven by tuning a non-thermal frustration parameter, and result due to characteristic softening of the 'Higgs' type mode that corresponds to amplitude fluctuations of the order parameter. The first-order nature of the finite temperature Kauzmann quantum critical point is seen as a consequence of the discrete change of the topology of the ground state manifold that applies to crystalline and non-crystalline solid states.