Glass transition and effective potential in the hypernetted chain approximation

TL;DR

This paper investigates the glass transition in simple liquids using the hypernetted chain approximation and an effective potential, revealing a transition scenario similar to long-range disordered systems and aligning qualitatively with Monte Carlo simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to studying the glass transition in liquids within the HNC approximation using an effective potential.

Findings

Identifies a glass transition scenario analogous to one-step replica symmetry breaking.

Results qualitatively agree with Monte Carlo simulations of 3D hard spheres.

Provides insights into the nature of the glass transition in simple liquids.

Abstract

We study the glassy transition for simple liquids in the hypernetted chain (HNC) approximation by means of an effective potential recently introduced. Integrating the HNC equations for hard spheres, we find a transition scenario analogous to that of the long range disordered systems with ``one step replica symmetry breaking''. Our result agree qualitatively with Monte Carlo simulations of three dimensional hard spheres.