Tuning the fragility of a glassforming liquid by curving space

François Sausset, Gilles Tarjus, Pascal Viot

Published 2008-05-10, updated 2008-10-15Version 2

We investigate the influence of space curvature, and of the associated "frustration", on the dynamics of a model glassformer: a monatomic liquid on the hyperbolic plane. We find that the system's fragility, i.e. the sensitivity of the relaxation time to temperature changes, increases as one decreases the frustration. As a result, curving space provides a way to tune fragility and make it as large as wanted. We also show that the nature of the emerging "dynamic heterogeneities", another distinctive feature of slowly relaxing systems, is directly connected to the presence of frustration-induced topological defects.