Activated events in glasses: the structure of entropic droplets

TL;DR

This paper develops a replica instanton theory to understand the dynamics of entropic droplets in glasses, revealing how replica symmetry breaking affects surface tension and dynamical heterogeneity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel theoretical framework using replica instantons and symmetry breaking to analyze glassy dynamics and entropic droplets.

Findings

Surface tension decreases with length scale due to symmetry breaking.

Dynamical heterogeneity is significantly affected by the replica interface.

Activated dynamics in glasses are altered by the structure of entropic droplets.

Abstract

Using an effective potential approach, we present a replica instanton theory for the dynamics of entropic droplets in glassy systems. Replica symmetry breaking in the droplet interface leads to a length scale dependent reduction of the droplet surface tension and changes the character of the dynamical heterogeneity and activated dynamics in glasses.