Connected Network of Minima as a Model Glass: Long Time Dynamics

Luca Angelani, Giorgio Parisi, Giancarlo Ruocco, Gabriele Viliani

Published 1998-03-13, updated 1998-03-27Version 2

A simple model to investigate the long time dynamics of glass-formers is presented and applied to study a Lennard-Jones system in supercooled and glassy phases. According to our model, the point representing the system in the configurational phase space performs harmonic vibrations around (and activated jumps between) minima pertaining to a connected network. Exploiting the model, in agreement with the experimental results, we find evidence for: i) stretched relaxational dynamics; ii) a strong T-dependence of the stretching parameter; iii) breakdown of the Stokes-Einstein law.