Avoided criticality and slow relaxation in frustrated two-dimensional models
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:
-
[1]
; [1]
; [2]
- Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
- Univ. Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris Cedex (France)
- Publication Date:
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515
- 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)
- Research Org:
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org:
- USDOE
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1414834
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1402106