Microscopic Theory of a Fluctuation-Induced Dynamical Crossover in Supercooled Liquids

Grzegorz Szamel (CSU, Fort Collins)

Dec 04. 2026, 10:40 — 11:20

Mode-coupling theory of the glass transition predicts a phase transition to a dynamically arrested state, yet no such transition is observed in experiments or simulations of finite-dimensional systems. We resolve this long-standing discrepancy by incorporating critical dynamical fluctuations into a microscopic mode-coupling framework. We show that these fluctuations round off the mode-coupling transition and restore ergodicity at all finite densities (or temperatures) without invoking activated dynamics or facilitation. The resulting effective theory describes the order parameter as a stochastic process with self-induced, annealed disorder, determined self-consistently at the mean-field level. In the beta-relaxation regime, it reduces to stochastic beta-relaxation theory, thereby unifying mode-coupling and replica-based approaches beyond the mean-field level. All parameters of the resulting stochastic beta-relaxation theory are determined solely by the static structure.

Further Information
Venue:
ESI Boltzmann Lecture Hall
Associated Event:
New Frontiers in Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics of Glasses (Workshop)
Organizer(s):
Thomas Franosch (U of Innsbruck)
Matthias Fuchs (U of Konstanz)
Liesbeth Janssen (TU Eindhoven)
Gerhard Kahl (TU Wien)
Thomas Voigtmann (DLR, Köln)