Particle jumps in structural glasses

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent research on particle jumps in structural glasses, exploring how short-time particle dynamics relate to long-term relaxation and their role in glass transition theories.

Contribution

It synthesizes current understanding of particle jump features and highlights ongoing investigations into their role in glass relaxation processes.

Findings

Particle jumps are key to understanding glass relaxation.

Features of jumps vary across different glass transition theories.

Research is ongoing to fully characterize jump dynamics.

Abstract

Particles in structural glasses rattle around temporary equilibriumpositions, that seldom change through a process which is much faster than the relaxation time, known as particle jump. Since the relaxation of the system is due to the accumulation of many such jumps, it could be possible to connect the single particle short time motion to the macroscopic relaxation by understanding the features of the jump dynamics. Here we review recent results in this research direction, clarifying the features of particles jumps that have been understood and those that are still under investigation, and examining the role of particle jumps in different theories of the glass transition.