Geometrical Frustration and Static Correlations in a Simple Glass Former

TL;DR

This paper investigates the role of geometrical frustration in glass formation using simple hard sphere models, finding limited insight from defect-based descriptions and questioning the relevance of static length scales in accessible regimes.

Contribution

It challenges the significance of defect-based dual pictures and static length scales in understanding glassy dynamics in simple hard sphere models.

Findings

Defect-based descriptions offer little insight into relaxation slowdown.

Growing static length scales are irrelevant in accessible simulation regimes.

Geometrical frustration remains a key factor in glass formation understanding.

Abstract

We study the geometrical frustration scenario of glass formation for simple hard sphere models. We find that the dual picture in terms of defects brings little insight and no theoretical simplification for the understanding of the slowing down of relaxation, because of the strong frustration characterizing these systems. The possibility of a growing static length is furthermore found to be physically irrelevant in the regime that is accessible to computer simulations.