Glassy behavior in an exactly solved spin system with a ferromagnetic transition.
We show that applying simple dynamical rules to Baxter's eight-vertex model leads to a system which resembles a glass-forming liquid. There are analogies with liquid, supercooled liquid, glassy, and crystalline states. The disordered phases exhibit strong dynamical heterogeneity at low temperatures, which may be described in terms of an emergent mobility field. Their dynamics are well described by a simple model with trivial thermodynamics, but an emergent kinetic constraint. We show that the (second order) thermodynamic transition to the ordered phase may be interpreted in terms of confinement of the excitations in the mobility field. We also describe the aging of disordered states toward the ordered phase, in terms of simple rate equations.
Jack
Robert L
RL
Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3NP, United Kingdom.
Garrahan
Juan P
JP
Sherrington
David
D