Numerical detection of the Gardner transition in a mean-field glass former.
Recent theoretical advances predict the existence, deep into the glass phase, of a novel phase transition, the so-called Gardner transition. This transition is associated with the emergence of a complex free energy landscape composed of many marginally stable sub-basins within a glass metabasin. In this study, we explore several methods to detect numerically the Gardner transition in a simple structural glass former, the infinite-range Mari-Kurchan model. The transition point is robustly located from three independent approaches: (i) the divergence of the characteristic relaxation time, (ii) the divergence of the caging susceptibility, and (iii) the abnormal tail in the probability distribution function of cage order parameters. We show that the numerical results are fully consistent with the theoretical expectation. The methods we propose may also be generalized to more realistic numerical models as well as to experimental systems.
Department of Chemistry, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.|Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.
Patrick
P
Charbonneau
Department of Chemistry, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.|Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Universitá di Roma, INFN, Sezione di Roma I, IPFC - CNR, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, I-00185 Roma, Italy.|LPT, École Normale Supérieure, UMR 8549 CNRS, 24 Rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France.
Yuliang
Y
Jin
Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Universitá di Roma, INFN, Sezione di Roma I, IPFC - CNR, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, I-00185 Roma, Italy.
Giorgio
G
Parisi
Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Universitá di Roma, INFN, Sezione di Roma I, IPFC - CNR, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, I-00185 Roma, Italy.|LPT, École Normale Supérieure, UMR 8549 CNRS, 24 Rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France.
Corrado
C
Rainone
Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Universitá di Roma, INFN, Sezione di Roma I, IPFC - CNR, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, I-00185 Roma, Italy.|Instituto de Biocomputación y Física de Sistemas Complejos (BIFI), 50009 Zaragoza, Spain.
Beatriz
B
Seoane
LPT, École Normale Supérieure, UMR 8549 CNRS, 24 Rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France.
Francesco
F
Zamponi
D003198:Computer Simulation; D005898:Glass; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D044367:Phase Transition; D011312:Pressure