Entropic droplets and activated events near the glass transition of a random heteropolymer

TL;DR

This paper investigates the energy barriers and critical nuclei involved in the glass transition of a random heteropolymer using replica methods and instanton solutions, providing insights into the activated events near the transition.

Contribution

It introduces a numerical approach to estimate activation barriers and critical nuclei sizes in the glass transition of heteropolymers using replica and instanton techniques.

Findings

Estimated size of activation barriers

Determined critical nuclei between transition temperatures

Provided numerical solutions for inhomogeneous states

Abstract

The barriers between metastable states near the glass transition of a random heteropolymer are studied using replicas by describing inhomogeneous states. The instanton solution for a replica space free energy functional is found numerically to estimate the size of activation barriers and of the critical nuclei themselves between the dynamic and the static glass transition temperatures.