Statistical Mechanics of the Glass Transition in One-Component Liquids with Anisotropic Potential

TL;DR

This paper develops a statistical mechanics framework for a model of anisotropic one-component liquids, explaining glass transition phenomena, including diverging length scales and structural-relaxation time relations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel quasi-particle-based statistical mechanics approach to describe the glass transition in anisotropic liquids.

Findings

Identification of a diverging length scale at the glass transition

Correlation between structural changes and relaxation times

Comprehensive explanation of glass transition phenomenology

Abstract

We study a recently introduced model of one-component glass-forming liquids whose constituents interact with anisotropic potential. This system is interesting per-se and as a model of liquids like glycerol (interacting via hydrogen bonds) which are excellent glass formers. We work out the statistical mechanics of this system, encoding the liquid and glass disorder using appropriate quasi-particles (36 of them). The theory provides a full explanation of the glass transition phenomenology, including the identification of a diverging length scale and a relation between the structural changes and the diverging relaxation times.