@statphys23

Dynamic heterogeneity and the emergence of a growing length scale at the glass transition

. Abstract Book of the XXIII IUPAP International Conference on Statistical Physics, Genova, Italy, (9-13 July 2007)

Abstract

Is the glass transition merely a crossover with little or no universality? Or, instead, is it related to a true underlying phase transition, of a new kind? Recent experimental and numerical works, to a large extent triggered by new theoretical tools and concepts, unveiled that the dynamics becomes increasingly spatially correlated and heterogeneous on approaching the glass transition, thus strongly suggesting a positive answer to this last question. Concomitantly, theoretical predictions aimed to explain these dynamical correlations in terms of critical phenomena have been developed and started to be tested in detail. In this talk I shall present these new results focusing in particular on a field-theoretical approach to dynamical correlations in glassy systems and its corresponding predictions, especially within the framework of Mode-Coupling-Theory. I shall also explain how these results have opened the way to a direct measurement of growing dynamic correlation lengths close to the glass transition.

Links and resources

Tags