6533b86efe1ef96bd12cbd73
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Simulation of Models for the Glass Transition: Is There Progress?
Jörg BaschnagelKurt BinderWolfgang PaulWalter Kobsubject
Materials scienceCondensed matter physicsSpinsTransition temperatureMode couplingThermodynamic limitRelaxation (physics)Parallel temperingGlass transitionSupercoolingdescription
The glass transition of supercooled fluids is a particular challenge for computer simulation, because the (longest) relaxation times increase by about 15 decades upon approaching the transition temperature T g. Brute-force molecular dynamics simulations, as presented here for molten SiO2 and coarse-grained bead-spring models of polymer chains, can yield very useful insight about the first few decades of this slowing down. Hence this allows to access the temperature range around T c of the so-called mode coupling theory, whereas the dynamics around the experimental glass transition is completely out of reach. While methods such as “parallel tempering” improve the situation somewhat, a method that allows to span a significant part of the region T g ≤ T ≤ T c is still lacking. Only for abstract models such as the infinite range 10-state Potts glass with a few hundred spins this region can be explored. However this model suffers from very strong finite size effects thus making it difficult to extrapolate the results obtained for the finite system sizes to the thermodynamic limit.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002-01-01 |