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Updated: Jun 11, 2026

Cooling Rate Dependent Ellipsometry Measurements to Determine the Dynamics of Thin Glassy Films
Published on: January 26, 2016
Finite-temperature critical point of a glass transition
Yael S Elmatad1, Robert L Jack, David Chandler
1Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Abstract:
We generalize the simplest kinetically constrained model of a glass-forming liquid by softening kinetic constraints, allowing them to be violated with a small rate. We demonstrate that this model supports a first-order dynamical (space-time) phase transition between active (fluid) and inactive (glass) phases. The first-order phase boundary in this softened model ends in a finite-temperature dynamical critical point, which may be present in natural systems. In this case, the glass phase has a very large but finite relaxation time. We discuss links between the dynamical critical point and quantum phase transitions, showing that dynamical phase transitions in d dimensions map to quantum transitions in the same dimension, and hence to classical thermodynamic phase transitions in d + 1 dimensions.
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