Zero-temperature glass transition in two dimensions

TL;DR

This study uses advanced simulations to demonstrate a zero-temperature thermodynamic glass transition in two-dimensional liquids, revealing critical behavior and diverging correlations.

Contribution

It provides the first direct numerical evidence of a zero-temperature glass transition in two dimensions, addressing a long-standing open problem.

Findings

Liquid state terminates at zero-temperature transition

Associated with entropy crisis and diverging correlation length

Supports thermodynamic nature of the glass transition

Abstract

The nature of the glass transition is theoretically understood in the mean-field limit of infinite spatial dimensions, but the problem remains totally open in physical dimensions. Nontrivial finite-dimensional fluctuations are hard to control analytically, and experiments fail to provide conclusive evidence regarding the nature of the glass transition. Here, we use Monte Carlo simulations that fully bypass the glassy slowdown, and access equilibrium states in two-dimensional glass-forming liquids at low enough temperatures to directly probe the transition. We find that the liquid state terminates at a thermodynamic glass transition at zero temperature, which is associated with an entropy crisis and a diverging static correlation length.