# Vibrational density of states and specific heat in glasses from random matrix theory

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel model based on random matrix theory to explain the vibrational and thermal properties of glasses, successfully reproducing key experimental phenomena like the boson peak and its relation to shear modulus.

## Contribution

It proposes a new approach linking the vibrational spectrum of glasses to random matrix theory, explaining low-temperature specific heat and boson peak features.

## Key findings

- Reproduces the linear specific heat at low temperatures.
- Captures the boson peak and its inverse relation to shear modulus.
- Provides a theoretical framework aligning with experimental observations.

## Abstract

The low-temperature properties of glasses present important differences with respect to crystalline matter. In particular, models such as the Debye model of solids, which assume the existence of an underlying regular lattice, predict that the specific heat of solids varies with the cube of temperature at low temperatures. Since the 1970s' at least, it is a well established experimental fact that the specific heat of glasses is instead just linear in $T$ at $T \sim 1K$, and presents a pronounced peak when normalized by $T^{3}$, known as the boson peak. Here we present a new approach which suggests that the vibrational and thermal properties of amorphous solids are affected by the random matrix part of the vibrational spectrum. The model is also able to reproduce, for the first time, the experimentally observed inverse proportionality between the boson peak in the specific heat and the shear modulus.