Fluctuations and Shape of Cooperative Rearranging Regions in Glass-Forming Liquids

We develop a theory of amorphous interfaces in glass-forming liquids. We show that the statistical properties of these surfaces, which separate regions characterized by different amorphous arrangements of particles, coincide with the ones of domain walls in the random field Ising model. A major cons...

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Main Authors: Giulio Biroli, Chiara Cammarota
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2017-01-01
Series:Physical Review X
Online Access:http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.7.011011
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author Giulio Biroli
Chiara Cammarota
author_facet Giulio Biroli
Chiara Cammarota
author_sort Giulio Biroli
collection DOAJ
description We develop a theory of amorphous interfaces in glass-forming liquids. We show that the statistical properties of these surfaces, which separate regions characterized by different amorphous arrangements of particles, coincide with the ones of domain walls in the random field Ising model. A major consequence of our results is that supercooled liquids are characterized by two different static lengths: the point-to-set ξ_{PS}, which is a measure of the spatial extent of cooperative rearranging regions, and the wandering length ξ_{⊥}, which is related to the fluctuations of their shape. We find that ξ_{⊥} grows when approaching the glass transition but slower than ξ_{PS}. The wandering length increases as s_{c}^{-1/2}, where s_{c} is the configurational entropy. Our results strengthen the relationship with the random field Ising model found in recent works. They are in agreement with previous numerical studies of amorphous interfaces and provide a theoretical framework for explaining numerical and experimental findings on pinned particle systems and static lengths in glass-forming liquids.
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spelling doaj.art-61eb0ba18e7747c5adf8b51213ae78ff2022-12-21T20:36:51ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPhysical Review X2160-33082017-01-017101101110.1103/PhysRevX.7.011011Fluctuations and Shape of Cooperative Rearranging Regions in Glass-Forming LiquidsGiulio BiroliChiara CammarotaWe develop a theory of amorphous interfaces in glass-forming liquids. We show that the statistical properties of these surfaces, which separate regions characterized by different amorphous arrangements of particles, coincide with the ones of domain walls in the random field Ising model. A major consequence of our results is that supercooled liquids are characterized by two different static lengths: the point-to-set ξ_{PS}, which is a measure of the spatial extent of cooperative rearranging regions, and the wandering length ξ_{⊥}, which is related to the fluctuations of their shape. We find that ξ_{⊥} grows when approaching the glass transition but slower than ξ_{PS}. The wandering length increases as s_{c}^{-1/2}, where s_{c} is the configurational entropy. Our results strengthen the relationship with the random field Ising model found in recent works. They are in agreement with previous numerical studies of amorphous interfaces and provide a theoretical framework for explaining numerical and experimental findings on pinned particle systems and static lengths in glass-forming liquids.http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.7.011011
spellingShingle Giulio Biroli
Chiara Cammarota
Fluctuations and Shape of Cooperative Rearranging Regions in Glass-Forming Liquids
Physical Review X
title Fluctuations and Shape of Cooperative Rearranging Regions in Glass-Forming Liquids
title_full Fluctuations and Shape of Cooperative Rearranging Regions in Glass-Forming Liquids
title_fullStr Fluctuations and Shape of Cooperative Rearranging Regions in Glass-Forming Liquids
title_full_unstemmed Fluctuations and Shape of Cooperative Rearranging Regions in Glass-Forming Liquids
title_short Fluctuations and Shape of Cooperative Rearranging Regions in Glass-Forming Liquids
title_sort fluctuations and shape of cooperative rearranging regions in glass forming liquids
url http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.7.011011
work_keys_str_mv AT giuliobiroli fluctuationsandshapeofcooperativerearrangingregionsinglassformingliquids
AT chiaracammarota fluctuationsandshapeofcooperativerearrangingregionsinglassformingliquids