On relaxations and aging of various glasses

TL;DR

This paper proposes a universal mechanism explaining slow, logarithmic relaxation and aging phenomena observed in various physical systems, supported by experimental comparisons across multiple materials.

Contribution

It introduces a general theoretical framework for slow relaxation and aging, validated against diverse experimental data from different disordered systems.

Findings

Logarithmic relaxation is a common feature across systems.

The model predicts aging dependence on waiting-time.

Experimental data aligns with the proposed mechanism.

Abstract

Slow relaxation occurs in many physical and biological systems. `Creep' is an example from everyday life: when stretching a rubber band, for example, the recovery to its equilibrium length is not, as one might think, exponential: the relaxation is slow, in many cases logarithmic, and can still be observed after many hours. The form of the relaxation also depends on the duration of the stretching, the `waiting-time'. This ubiquitous phenomenon iscalled aging, and is abundant both in natural and technological applications. Here, we suggest a general mechanism for slow relaxations and aging, which predicts logarithmic relaxations, and a particular aging dependence on the waiting-time. We demonstrate the generality of the approach by comparing our predictions to experimental data on a diverse range of physical phenomena, from conductance in granular metals, to disordered insulators, and dirty semiconductors, to the low temperature dielectric properties of glasses.