Evidence of a glass transition induced by rigidity self-organization in a network forming fluid

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates through Monte Carlo simulations that a glass transition can be induced by self-organization related to rigidity constraints, avoiding crystallization during supercooling in a network-forming fluid.

Contribution

It introduces a novel simulation approach linking rigidity self-organization to glass transition formation, highlighting the role of geometrical constraints.

Findings

Glass transition achieved via self-organization.

Nucleation is avoided during supercooling.

Self-organization aligns with rigidity theory.

Abstract

A Monte Carlo method is used in order to simulate the competition between the molecular relaxation and crystallization times in the formation of a glass. The results show that nucleation is avoided during supercooling and produce self-organization in the sense of the rigidity theory, where the number of geometrical constraints due to bonding and excluded volume are compared with the degress of freedom available to the system. Following this idea, glass transitions were obtained by producing self-organization, and in the case of geometrical frustration, self-organization is naturally observed.