Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 23, 2026

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
Statistical mechanics and dynamics of a three-dimensional glass-forming system
Edan Lerner1, Itamar Procaccia, Jacques Zylberg
1Department of Chemical Physics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
Abstract:
In the context of a classical example of glass formation in three dimensions, we exemplify how to construct a statistical-mechanical theory of the glass transition. At the heart of the approach is a simple criterion for verifying a proper choice of upscaled quasispecies that allow the construction of a theory with a finite number of "states." Once constructed, the theory identifies a typical scale xi that increases rapidly with lowering the temperature and which determines the alpha-relaxation time tau(alpha) as tau(alpha) approximately exp(muxi/T), with mu a typical chemical potential. The theory can predict relaxation times at temperatures that are inaccessible to numerical simulations.
Related Concept Videos
Kinetic Theory of an Ideal Gas
The number of molecules in one mole is called Avogadro's number...
The Kinetic Model of Gases
Absolute Entropies and the Third Law of Thermodynamics
Three-Dimensional Force System
First Law: Particles in Two-dimensional Equilibrium
Newton's first law tells us about the...
Entropy

