Out-of-equilibrium dynamical fluctuations in glassy systems.

Area of Science:

• Condensed Matter Physics
• Statistical Mechanics
• Complex Systems

Background:

• Understanding out-of-equilibrium dynamics in glassy systems is crucial for materials science.
• Previous studies focused on quenched disorder, limiting applicability to certain models.
• Mesoscopic fluctuations in glassy systems require further theoretical and computational investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate out-of-equilibrium mesoscopic fluctuations in glassy systems without quenched disorder.
• To compare fluctuation scaling in disordered and non-disordered glassy models.
• To develop a theoretical framework for describing these fluctuations.

Main Methods:

• Extensive computer simulations of glassy models.
• Analysis of local two-time correlators and their probability distributions.
• Development of an effective sigma model approach.

Main Results:

• Glassy models without quenched disorder show similar scaling of two-time correlators as models with short-ranged quenched interactions.
• A critical-like dynamical correlation length is identified as the key factor for these scaling properties.
• A time-evolving extreme value distribution successfully describes the observed data collapse.

Conclusions:

• The presence of quenched disorder is not essential for observing specific scaling behaviors in mesoscopic fluctuations.
• Dynamical correlation length plays a fundamental role in the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of glassy systems.
• The developed effective sigma model provides a theoretical basis for understanding extreme value distributions in these systems.