Dynamic first-order phase transition in kinetically constrained models of glasses

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that kinetically constrained models of glasses exhibit a first-order dynamical phase transition between active and inactive states, supported by analytical and numerical evidence across various models and dimensions.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive analysis showing the universality of the dynamical first-order transition in kinetically constrained models of glasses.

Findings

Identification of a first-order coexistence line in dynamics

Analytic results for mean-field facilitated models

Numerical evidence from various lattice models

Abstract

We show that the dynamics of kinetically constrained models of glass formers takes place at a first-order coexistence line between active and inactive dynamical phases. We prove this by computing the large-deviation functions of suitable space-time observables, such as the number of configuration changes in a trajectory. We present analytic results for dynamic facilitated models in a mean-field approximation, and numerical results for the Fredrickson-Andersen model, the East model, and constrained lattice gases, in various dimensions. This dynamical first-order transition is generic in kinetically constrained models, and we expect it to be present in systems with fully jammed states.