Fluctuating mobility generation and transport in glasses
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Updated: May 7, 2026

Methods of Ex Situ and In Situ Investigations of Structural Transformations: The Case of Crystallization of Metallic Glasses
Published on: June 7, 2018
Apiwat Wisitsorasak1, Peter G Wolynes
1Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA and Department of Physics & Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA.
Abstract:
In the context of the random first order transition theory we use an extended mode coupling theory of the glass transition that includes activated events to account for spatiotemporal structures in rejuvenating glasses. We numerically solve fluctuating dynamical equations for mobility and fictive temperature fields which capture both mobility generation through activated events and facilitation effects. Upon rejuvenating, a source of high mobility at a glass surface initiates a growth front of mobility which propagates into the unstable low mobility region. The speed of the front quantitatively agrees with experiments on the rejuvenation of ultrastable glasses, which "melt" from their surface.
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