title: Statistical mechanics and dynamics of a three-dimensional glass-forming system.
abstract: In the context of a classical example of glass formation in three dimensions, we exemplify how to construct a statistical-mechanical theory of the glass transition. At the heart of the approach is a simple criterion for verifying a proper choice of upscaled quasispecies that allow the construction of a theory with a finite number of "states." Once constructed, the theory identifies a typical scale xi that increases rapidly with lowering the temperature and which determines the alpha-relaxation time tau(alpha) as tau(alpha) approximately exp(muxi/T), with mu a typical chemical potential. The theory can predict relaxation times at temperatures that are inaccessible to numerical simulations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Physics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Edan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lerner
authors.forename: Itamar
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Procaccia
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zylberg