Vibrational instability, two-level systems and Boson peak in glasses

TL;DR

This paper presents a unified theory linking vibrational instability of weakly interacting modes to both two-level systems and the Boson peak in glasses, explaining their origin and quantitative features.

Contribution

It introduces a mechanism based on vibrational instability that explains both phenomena and predicts the small density of two-level systems in glasses.

Findings

The Boson peak and two-level systems originate from vibrational instability.

The theory predicts a small dimensionless parameter C ~ 10^{-4} for two-level systems.

The number of active two-level systems is less than one in ten million oscillators.

Abstract

We show that the same physical mechanism is fundamental for two seemingly different phenomena such as the formation of two-level systems in glasses and the Boson peak in the reduced density of low-frequency vibrational states g(w)/w^2. This mechanism is the vibrational instability of weakly interacting harmonic modes. Below some frequency w_c << w_0 (where w_0 is of the order of Debye frequency) the instability, controlled by the anharmonicity, creates a new stable universal spectrum of harmonic vibrations with a Boson peak feature as well as double-well potentials with a wide distribution of barrier heights. Both are determined by the strength of the interaction I ~ w_c between the oscillators. Our theory predicts in a natural way a small value for the important dimensionless parameter C ~ 10^{-4} for two-level systems in glasses. We show that C ~ I^{-3} and decreases with increasing of the interaction strength I. We show that the number of active two-level systems is very small, less than one per ten million of oscillators, in a good agreement with experiment. Within the unified approach developed in the present paper the density of the tunneling states and the density of vibrational states at the Boson peak frequency are interrelated.