# Intrinsic features of an ideal glass

## TL;DR

This paper investigates the intrinsic properties of an ideal glass, revealing a flat potential energy landscape and cooperative atomic diffusion, which are key to understanding the glass transition.

## Contribution

It provides a detailed simulation-based analysis of the thermodynamic and potential energy surface features of an ideal glass, highlighting its unique flat landscape.

## Key findings

- Atoms in an ideal glass exhibit cooperative diffusion.
- The potential energy surface of an ideal glass is flat.
- Glass transition relates to the accessibility of the flat potential region.

## Abstract

In order to understand the long-standing problem of the nature of glass states, we performed intensive simulations on the thermodynamic properties and potential energy surface of an ideal glass. We found that the atoms of an ideal glass manifest cooperative diffusion, and show clearly different behavior from the liquid state. By determining the potential energy surface, we demonstrated that the glass state has a flat potential landscape, which is the critical intrinsic feature of ideal glasses. When this potential region is accessible through any thermal or kinetic process, the glass state can be formed and a glass transition will occur, regardless of any special structural character. With this picture, the glass transition can be interpreted by the emergence of configurational entropies, as a consequence of flat potential landscapes.