Detecting low-energy quasilocalized excitations in computer glasses

Area of Science:

• Condensed Matter Physics
• Materials Science
• Computational Physics

Background:

• Soft, quasilocalized excitations (QLEs) are fundamental to understanding disordered solids and glass physics.
• Existing computational methods struggle to isolate QLEs from phononic excitations, hindering statistical mechanics studies.
• Key properties like QLE abundance and frequencies remain unclear due to hybridization issues.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an efficient computational algorithm for detecting QLEs in structural computer glasses.
• To provide a tool for studying the statistical mechanics of QLEs.
• To overcome limitations of conventional harmonic analyses in disordered systems.

Main Methods:

• An efficient algorithm is presented to identify and characterize QLEs within computer-generated glass samples.
• The algorithm takes a glass sample as input and outputs a library of embedded QLEs.
• The method is validated by analyzing QLE spectra in 2D computer glasses.

Main Results:

• The algorithm successfully detects QLEs in computer glasses, providing a library of these excitations.
• The study reports the spectrum of glassy excitations in 2D glasses with varying mechanical stability.
• The new method overcomes phonon hybridization issues that plague conventional analyses.

Conclusions:

• The developed algorithm is a powerful tool for studying QLEs in disordered solids.
• This work opens new avenues for investigating the micromechanical properties and statistical mechanics of glasses.
• Future research can leverage this algorithm to explore complex phenomena in glass physics.