A simple solvable energy landscape model that shows a thermodynamic phase transition and a glass transition

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple energy landscape model that captures both thermodynamic phase transitions and glass transitions, providing insights into cooling rates and metastable states in glass formation.

Contribution

The model incorporates metastable states with multiplicity and topology, enabling the study of phase and glass transitions within a unified energy landscape framework.

Findings

The model exhibits a phase transition in the thermodynamic limit.

Fast cooling leads to a glass transition in the model.

Minimal cooling speed for glass formation depends on metastable state distribution.

Abstract

When a liquid melt is cooled, a glass or phase transition can be obtained depending on the cooling rate. Yet, this behavior has not been clearly captured in energy landscape models. Here a model is provided in which two key ingredients are considered based in the landscape, metastable states and their multiplicity. Metastable states are considered as in two level system models. However, their multiplicity and topology allows a phase transition in the thermodynamic limit, while a transition to the glass is obtained for fast cooling. By solving the corresponding master equation, the minimal speed of cooling required to produce the glass is obtained as a function of the distribution of metastable and stable states. This allows to understand cooling trends due to rigidity considerations in chalcogenide glasses.