The Shapes of Cooperatively Rearranging Regions in Glass Forming Liquids

Jacob D. Stevenson; Joerg Schmalian; Peter G. Wolynes

doi:10.1038/nphys261

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The Shapes of Cooperatively Rearranging Regions in Glass Forming Liquids

Jacob D. Stevenson·Joerg Schmalian·Peter G. Wolynes

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Abstract

The shapes of cooperatively rearranging regions in glassy liquids change from being compact at low temperatures to fractal or ``stringy'' as the dynamical crossover temperature from activated to collisional transport is approached from below. We present a quantitative microscopic treatment of this change of morphology within the framework of the random first order transition theory of glasses. We predict a correlation of the ratio of the dynamical crossover temperature to the laboratory glass transition temperature, and the heat capacity discontinuity at the glass transition, Delta C_p. The predicted correlation agrees with experimental results for the 21 materials compiled by Novikov and Sokolov.

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Jacob D. Stevenson, Joerg Schmalian, Peter G. Wolynes. 2005-08-29. The Shapes of Cooperatively Rearranging Regions in Glass Forming Liquids. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys261

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