Reply to Comment on "Microscopic theory of network glasses"

TL;DR

This paper defends a microscopic theory of network glasses against criticisms, clarifying measurement discrepancies and highlighting the strong agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental data on glass transition ratios.

Contribution

The authors clarify misunderstandings in a comment criticizing their theory and demonstrate the accuracy of their predictions for glass transition ratios.

Findings

Excellent agreement between theory and experiment for TK/TG ratio

Misinterpretation of TA/TG ratio comparison in the comment

Theoretical predictions are validated by experimental data

Abstract

In a Comment (cond-mat/0310030) on our recent paper on network glasses (Phys. Rev. Lett., 2003, 90, 085505), Micoulaut and Boolchand (MB) compare our predictions on glass transitions in network systems for the ratios of the transition temperatures TA/TG and TK/TG with experimental data. They claim significant differences between experiment and theory are seen and claim the lack of agreement is due to flaws in our theory. Their comparison of TA/TG is incorrect as they do not measure the same quantity that our theory predicts. The TK/TG comparison shows remarkable agreement between theory and experiment.