Following the evolution of metastable glassy states under external perturbations: compression and shear-strain

TL;DR

This thesis develops a mean-field, first-principles theory of metastable glassy states, explaining their behavior under external perturbations like compression and shear-strain, with both theoretical insights and numerical validation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel theoretical framework for understanding metastable glasses, predicting their response to external perturbations and providing a unified approach to glass phenomenology.

Findings

Reproduces known observations of glassy states

Predicts new behaviors at high densities and under strain

Provides a numerical validation of theoretical results

Abstract

This thesis sums up the research work I performed as a PhD student in Sapienza Universit\`a di Roma, and \'Ecole Normale Sup\'erieure, Paris, under the joint supervision of Prof. Giorgio Parisi and Dr. Francesco Zamponi. The thesis focuses on the theoretical study of metastable glasses prepared through non-equilibrium protocols. The first two chapters contain a review of the phenomenology of equilibrium supercooled liquids and non-equilibrium glasses, along with an exposition of the theoretical tools used up to now to approach the glass problem; the third chapter contains a review of the theoretical tools which are employed in the following of the thesis; the following two chapters contain our main result, namely a mean-field and first-principles theory of metastable glassy states which, as we show, is both able to reproduce known observations and to formulate new predictions and insights into the very nature of the glass phase, with tangible consequences in terms of behavior at high densities (or equivalently, low temperatures) and elasto-plastic response under strain; the last two chapters contain a numerical check of some of the results, and our conclusions and proposals for further research. The results I report in the present work have been for the most part already published, but here they are presented in a consistent and (as much as possible) self-contained manner.