Liquid-glass transition of a fluid confined in a disordered porous matrix: A mode-coupling theory

TL;DR

This paper extends mode coupling theory to confined fluids in disordered porous matrices, predicting complex glass transition behaviors such as reentrance and higher-order singularities.

Contribution

It develops a theoretical framework for confined fluid glass transitions, enabling transfer of bulk methods to disordered porous systems.

Findings

Predicted reentrant glass transition scenarios.

Identified higher-order singularities in the phase diagram.

Extended mode coupling equations applicable to confined fluids.

Abstract

We derive an extension of the mode coupling theory for the liquid-glass transition to a class of models of confined fluids, where the fluid particles evolve in a disordered array of interaction sites. We find that the corresponding equations are similar to those describing the bulk, implying that the methods of investigation which were developed there are directly transferable to this new domain of application. We then compute the dynamical phase diagram of a simple model system and show that new and nontrivial transition scenarios, including reentrant glass transitions and higher-order singularities, can be predicted from the proposed theory.