Title: Avoided criticality and slow relaxation in frustrated two-dimensional models

Abstract

Here, frustration and the associated phenomenon of “avoided criticality” have been proposed as an explanation for the dramatic relaxation slowdown in glass-forming liquids. To test this, we have undertaken a Monte Carlo study of possibly the simplest such problem, the two-dimensional XY model with frustration corresponding to a small flux f per plaquette. At f = 0, there is a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition at T*, but at any small but nonzero f, this transition is avoided and replaced (presumably) by a vortex-ordering transition at much lower temperatures. We thus have studied the evolution of the dynamics for small and moderate f as the system is cooled from above T* to below. Although we do find strongly temperature-dependent slowing of the dynamics as T crosses T* and that simultaneously the dynamics becomes more complex, neither effect is anywhere nearly as dramatic as the corresponding phenomena in glass-forming liquids. At the very least, this implies that the properties of supercooled liquids must depend on more than frustration and the existence of an avoided transition.

Authors:

Esterlis, Ilya ^[1]; Kivelson, Steven A. ^[1]; Tarjus, Gilles ^[2]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
2. Univ. Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris Cedex (France)

Publication Date:

2017-10-23

Research Org.:

SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE

OSTI Identifier:

1414834

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1402106

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-76SF00515

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Physical Review B

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 96; Journal Issue: 14; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9950

Publisher:

American Physical Society (APS)

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY