Finite-size scaling for the glass transition: The role of a static length scale

Smarajit Karmakar, Itamar Procaccia

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Over the past decade, computer simulations have had an increasing role in shedding light on difficult statistical physical phenomena, and in particular on the ubiquitous problem of the glass transition. Here in a wide variety of materials the viscosity of a supercooled liquid increases by many orders of magnitude upon decreasing the temperature over a modest range. A natural concern in these computer simulations is the very small size of the simulated systems compared to experimental ones, raising the issue of how to assess the thermodynamic limit. Here we turn this limitation to our advantage by performing finite size scaling on the system size dependence of the relaxation time for supercooled liquids to emphasize the importance of a growing static length scale in the theory of glass transition. We demonstrate that the static length scale that was discovered by us in Physica A0378-437110.1016/j.physa.2011.11.020 391, 1001 (2012) fits the bill extremely well, allowing us to provide a finite-size scaling theory for the α-relaxation time of the glass transition, including predictions for the thermodynamic limit based on simulations in small systems.

Original languageEnglish
Article number061502
JournalPhysical Review E
Volume86
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 10 Dec 2012

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
  • Statistics and Probability

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