Glassy behaviour in an exactly solved spin system with a ferromagnetic transition

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that applying simple dynamical rules to Baxter's eight-vertex model results in a system exhibiting glass-like behavior, including dynamical heterogeneity and aging, despite having a trivial thermodynamic structure.

Contribution

It introduces a novel spin system model with glassy dynamics derived from an exactly solvable vertex model, highlighting emergent kinetic constraints and phase transition interpretations.

Findings

Disordered phases show strong dynamical heterogeneity at low temperatures.

The dynamics are governed by an emergent mobility field with trivial thermodynamics.

The thermodynamic transition involves confinement of excitations in the mobility field.

Abstract

We show that applying simple dynamical rules to Baxter's eight-vertex model leads to a system which resembles a glass-forming liquid. There are analogies with liquid, supercooled liquid, glassy and crystalline states. The disordered phases exhibit strong dynamical heterogeneity at low temperatures, which may be described in terms of an emergent mobility field. Their dynamics are well-described by a simple model with trivial thermodynamics, but an emergent kinetic constraint. We show that the (second order) thermodynamic transition to the ordered phase may be interpreted in terms of confinement of the excitations in the mobility field. We also describe the aging of disordered states towards the ordered phase, in terms of simple rate equations.