Glassy dynamics as a melting process (On melting dynamics and the glass transition, Part II)

There are deep analogies between the melting dynamics in systems with a first order phase transition and the dynamics from equilibrium in super-cooled liquids. For a class of Ising spin models undergoing a first order transition - namely p-spin models on the so-called Nishimori line - it can be shown that the melting dynamics can be exactly mapped to the equilibrium dynamics. In this mapping the dynamical -or mode-coupling- glass transition corresponds to the spinodal point, while the Kauzmann transition corresponds to the first order phase transition itself. Both in mean field and finite dimensional models this mapping provides an exact realization of the random first order theory scenario for the glass transition. The corresponding glassy phenomenology can then be understood in the framework of a standard first order phase transition.

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