Searching for the Gardner Transition in Glassy Glycerol

Area of Science:

• Condensed Matter Physics
• Materials Science
• Amorphous Solids

Background:

• The Gardner transition is a theoretical phase transition in glassy systems.
• It predicts a divergence in dynamical susceptibility analogous to spin-glass behavior.
• Molecular glasses are complex systems with unique low-temperature properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally search for evidence of a Gardner transition in glassy glycerol.
• To measure the third harmonic susceptibility (χ_{3}^{(3)}) across a wide temperature range.
• To understand the low-temperature physics of molecular glasses.

Main Methods:

• Measurement of third harmonic cubic susceptibility (χ_{3}^{(3)}) in glassy glycerol.
• Temperature-dependent measurements from near the glass transition down to 10 K.
• Analysis of susceptibility data in the context of spin-glass models and random fields.

Main Results:

• The third harmonic susceptibility |χ_{3}^{(3)}| decreased significantly upon cooling, rather than diverging.
• A roughly constant susceptibility was observed between 100 K and 10 K.
• Quantitative estimations indicated that spin-glass interactions are weaker than random field contributions.

Conclusions:

• The study did not find evidence for a Gardner phase in glassy glycerol.
• The observed low-temperature behavior is consistent with localized excitations and weak spin-glass interactions in a random magnetic field.
• A Gardner phase might be suppressed in standard molecular glasses, but could be favored in other amorphous solids or with altered preparation methods.