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Updated: Apr 15, 2026
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Setting Limits on Supersymmetry Using Simplified Models
Published on: November 15, 2013
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Glassy slowdown and replica-symmetry-breaking instantons
Allan Adams1, Tarek Anous1, Jaehoon Lee1
1Center for Theoretical Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Summary
Glass-forming liquids slow down due to large structural rearrangements. Replica theory shows replica-symmetry-breaking instantons dominate, revealing insights into glassy dynamics and correlations.
Area of Science:
- Condensed matter physics
- Statistical mechanics
- Materials science
Background:
- Glass-forming liquids exhibit temperature-dependent dynamical slowdown.
- Relaxation involves cooperative structural rearrangements of increasing size upon cooling.
- These dynamics are theoretically modeled using replica effective field theory.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of instantons in modeling glassy dynamics.
- To determine the prevalence of replica-symmetry-breaking instantons across different free-energy landscape statistics.
- To connect instanton structure to point-to-set correlations and liquid behavior.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing replica effective field theory to model cooperative rearrangements.
- Analyzing instanton solutions within the theory.
- Varying parameters of the effective theory to explore different landscape statistics.
Main Results:
- Replica-symmetry-breaking instantons were found to dominate for a wide range of parameters.
- The size of the dominant instanton correlates with the liquid's point-to-set correlation length.
- Instanton structure offers detailed insights into point-to-set correlations.
Conclusions:
- Replica-symmetry-breaking instantons are crucial for understanding glassy dynamics.
- The detailed structure of instantons provides a powerful tool for analyzing liquid behavior.
- This approach links microscopic correlations to macroscopic dynamical slowdown.
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