The specific heat Cp and other properties of glasses (ranging from amorphous solids to disordered crystals) at low temperatures, are well known to be markedly different from those in fully-ordered crystals. For decades, this qualitative, and even quantitative, universal behavior of glasses has been thoroughly studied. However, a clear understanding of its origin and microscopic nature, needless to say a closed theory, is still lacking. To shed light on this matter, I review the situation in this work, mainly by compiling and discussing measured low-temperature Cp data of many glasses and disordered crystals, as well as highlighting a few exceptions to that "universality rule". Thus, one can see that, in contrast to other low-temperature properties of glasses, the magnitude of the "glassy" Cp excess at low temperature is far from being universal. Even worse, some molecular crystals without a clear sign of disorder exhibit linear coefficients in Cp larger than those found in many amorphous solids, whereas a few of the latter show negligible values.
The low-temperature thermal properties of glasses are anomalous with respect to those of crystals. These thermal anomalies indicate that the low-frequency vibrational properties of glasses differ from those of crystals. Recent studies revealed that, in the simplest model of glasses, i.e., the harmonic potential system, phonon modes coexist with soft localized modes in the low-frequency (continuum) limit. However, the nature of low-frequency vibrational modes of more realistic models is still controversial. In the present work, we study the Lennard-Jones (LJ) system using large-scale molecular-…
Anomalous Hall effect arising from the noncoplanar spin configuration (chirality) is discussed as a probe of the chiral order in spin glasses. It is shown that the Hall coefficient yields direct information about the linear and nonlinear chiral susceptibilities of the spin sector, which has been hard to obtain experimentally from the standard magnetic measurements. Based on the chirality scenario of spin-glass transition, predictions are given on the behavior of the Hall resistivity of canonical spin glasses.
Spin-charge conversion via inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) is essential for enabling various applications of spintronics. The spin Hall response usually follows a universal scaling relation with longitudinal electric resistivity and has mild temperature dependence because elementary excitations play only a minor role in resistivity and hence ISHE. Here we report that the ISHE of metallic glasses shows nearly two orders of magnitude enhancements with temperature increase from a threshold of 80-100 K to glass transition points. As electric resistivity changes only marginally in the temperature r…
Anomalous Values of Debye temperature have been obtained from Lamb Mossbauer factor measurements of Ge-Se-Ag glasses. We show that this anomaly may arise due to the presence of anharmonic potential at the high spin ferrous site. In this paper, we use q Lamb Mossbauer factor and anharmonic Lamb Mossbauer factor to study this anharmoncity.
We investigate the spectral and localization properties of unmagnetized Heisenberg-Mattis spin glasses, in space dimensionalities $d=2$ and 3, at T=0. We use numerical transfer-matrix methods combined with finite-size scaling to calculate Lyapunov exponents, and eigenvalue-counting theorems, coupled with Gaussian elimination algorithms, to evaluate densities of states. In $d=2$ we find that all states are localized, with the localization length diverging as $ω^{-1}$, as energy $ω\to 0$. Logarithmic corrections to density of states behave in accordance with theoretical predictions. In $d=3$ the…
A theory of weakly-nonlinear low-temperature relaxational absorption of acoustic and electromagnetic waves in dielectric and metallic glasses is developed. Basing upon the model of two-level tunneling systems we show that the nonlinear contribution to the absorption can be anomalously large. This is the case at low enough frequencies, where freqeuency times the minimal relaxation time for the two-level system are much less than one. In dielectric glasses, the lowest-order nonlinear contribution is proportional to the wave's intensity. It is negative and exhibits anomalous frequency and tempera…
The low-temperature thermal properties of dielectric crystals are governed by acoustic excitations with large wavelengths that are well described by plane waves. This is the Debye model, which rests on the assumption that the medium is an elastic continuum, holds true for acoustic wavelengths large on the microscopic scale fixed by the interatomic spacing, and gradually breaks down on approaching it. Glasses are characterized as well by universal low-temperature thermal properties, that are however anomalous with respect to those of the corresponding crystalline phases. Related universal anoma…
The dynamic structure factor, S(Q,w), of vitreous silica, has been measured by inelastic X-ray scattering in the exchanged wavevector (Q) region Q=4-16.5 nm-1 and up to energies hw=115 meV in the Stokes side. The unprecedented statistical accuracy in such an extended energy range allows to accurately determine the longitudinal current spectra, and the energies of the vibrational excitations. The simultaneous observation of two excitations in the acoustic region, and the persistence of propagating sound waves up to Q values comparable with the (pseudo-)Brillouin zone edge, allow to observe a po…
Glasses and other non-crystalline solids exhibit thermal and acoustic properties at low temperatures anomalously different from those found in crystalline solids, and with a remarkable degree of universality. Below a few K, these universal properties have been successfully interpreted using the Tunneling Model, which has enjoyed (almost) unanimous recognition for decades. Here we present low-temperature specific-heat measurements of ultrastable glasses of indomethacin that clearly show the disappearance of the ubiquitous linear contribution traditionally ascribed to the existence of tunneling …
The dielectric anomalies of window-type glasses at low temperatures ($T<$ 1 K) are rather successfully explained by the two-level systems (2LS) tunneling model (TM). However, the magnetic effects discovered in the multisilicate glasses in recent times \cite{ref1}-\cite{ref3}, and also some older data from mixed (SiO$_2$)$_{1-x}$(K$_2$O)$_x$ and (SiO$_2$)$_{1-x}$(Na$_2$O)$_x$ glasses \cite{ref4}, indicate the need for a suitable generalization of the 2LS TM. We show that, not only for the magnetic effects \cite{ref3,ref5} but also for the mixed glasses in the absence of a field, the right exten…
Glassy solids exhibit a wide variety of generic thermomechanical properties, ranging from universal anomalous specific heat at cryogenic temperatures to nonlinear plastic yielding and failure under external driving forces, which qualitatively differ from their crystalline counterparts. For a long time, it has been believed that many of these properties are intimately related to nonphononic, low-energy quasilocalized excitations (QLEs) in glasses. Indeed, recent computer simulations have conclusively revealed that the self-organization of glasses during vitrification upon cooling from a melt le…
Previous theoretical, along with early simulation and experimental, studies have indicated that particles with a short-ranged attraction exhibit a range of new dynamical arrest phenomena. These include very pronounced reentrance in the dynamical arrest curve, a logarithmic singularity in the density correlation functions, and the existence of `attractive' and `repulsive' glasses. Here we carry out extensive molecular dynamics calculations on dense systems interacting via a square-well potential. This is one of the simplest systems with the required properties, and may be regarded as canonical …
We present a theory for the memory effect in electron glasses. In fast gate voltage sweeps it is manifested as a dip in the conductivity around the equilibration gate voltage. We show that this feature, also known as anomalous field effect, arises from the long-time persistence of correlations in the electronic configuration. We argue that the gate voltage at which the memory dip saturates is related to an instability caused by the injection of a critical number of excess carriers. This saturation threshold naturally increases with temperature. On the other hand, we argue that the gate voltage…
In this work we extend, review and jointly discuss earlier experiments conducted by us in hyperaged geological glasses, either in Dominican amber (20 million years old) or in Spanish amber from El Soplao (110 million years old). After characterization of their thermodynamic and elastic properties (using Differential Scanning Calorimetry around the glass-transition temperature, and measuring mass density and sound velocity), their specific heat was measured at low and very low temperatures. By directly comparing pristine amber samples (i.e. highly stabilized polymer glasses after aging for mill…
Among the many physical properties, the amorphous state manifests itself in the most spectacular way in heat transport. Anomalously low thermal conductivity, its low-temperature dependence as a function of temperature, the presence of a plateau of thermal conductivity, all are definitely different when compared with the ordered state of crystals. For this reason, the microscopic mechanisms from which these surprising behaviors may emerge have been the subject of intensive theoretical research and even more extensive experimental research. These investigations have led to the detection of a hug…
In a previous paper (cond-mat/0106554) we showed the existence of two new zero-temperature exponents (λand θ') in two dimensional Gaussian spin glasses. Here we introduce a novel low-temperature expansion for spin glasses expressed in terms of the gap probability distributions for successive energy levels. After presenting the numerical evidence in favor of a random-energy levels scenario, we analyze the main consequences on the low-temperature equilibrium behavior. We find that the specific heat is anomalous at low-temperatures c ~ T**αwith α=-d/θ' which turns out to be linear for the case θ'…
Glasses show vibrational properties that are markedly different to those of crystals which are known as phonons. For example, excess low-frequency modes (the so-called boson peak), vibrational localization, and strong scattering of phonons have been the most discussed topics, and a theoretical understanding of these phenomena is challenging. To address this problem, computational simulations are a powerful tool, which have been employed by many previous works. In this chapter, we describe simulation methods for studying the vibrational properties of glasses (and any solid-state materials). We …
The high-frequency excitations in glasses and supercooled liquids belong to the great mysteries of the physics of condensed matter. While the fast process, located at GHz-THz, can be interpreted as encaged molecular motion, the occurrence of the boson peak (BP), dominating at THz frequencies, still is controversially debated. Two scenarios have evolved during recent years: the BP is truly collective in nature or, alternatively, it results from localized modes. To help solving this controversy, we have investigated the high-frequency dielectric loss of plastic crystals (PCs), having long-range …
Direct measurements of the spin glass correlation function $G(R)$ for Gaussian and bimodal Ising spin glasses in dimension two have been carried out in the temperature region $T \sim 1$. In the Gaussian case the data are consistent with the known anomalous dimension value $η\equiv 0$. For the bimodal spin glass in this temperature region $T > T^{*}(L)$, well above the crossover $T^{*}(L)$ to the ground state dominated regime, the effective exponent $η$ is clearly non-zero and the data are consistent with the estimate $η\sim 0.28(4)$ given by McMillan in 1983 from similar measurements. Measurem…
Phenomenologically assuming a sharp decrease of shear relaxation time for large wavevector $k>k_ξ$ density modes (where $k_ξ$ is of order of inverse of several interatomic distances $a$), I develop a general elasto-hydrodynamic theory describing the low-energy excitations of glassy and amorphous solids, which are responsible for anomalous specific heat and thermal conductivity. The theory explains the origin of collective two-level states and Boson peak. The ratio of the wavelength of the phonon, $λ$, to its mean free path, $l$, - universal property of sound absorption in glasses - is derived …
The thermal and dielectric anomalies of window-type glasses at low temperatures ($T<$ 1 K) are rather successfully explained by the two-level systems (2LS) standard tunneling model (STM). However, the magnetic effects discovered in the multisilicate glasses in recent times, magnetic effects in the organic glasses and also some older data from mixed (SiO$_2$)$_{1-x}$(K$_2$O)$_x$ and (SiO$_2$)$_{1-x}$(Na$_2$O)$_x$ glasses indicate the need for a suitable extension of the 2LS-STM. We show that -- not only for the magnetic effects, but already for the mixed glasses in the absence of a field -- the…
We compare the heat release data of organic glasses with that of amorphous and glass like crystalline solids. Anomalous behavior was found in all these materials, which disagrees with the standard tunneling model. We can explain the most of the experimental observations within a phenomenological model, where we assume that for a part of tunneling systems the barrier heights are strongly reduced as a consequence of the local stress produced during the cooling process.
We studied a set of float glass samples prepared with different fictive temperature by previous annealing around the glass transition temperature. We compared the results to previous measurements on a series of amorphous silica samples, also prepared with different fictive temperature. We showed that the modifications on the structure at a local scale are very small, the changes of physical properties are moderate but the changes on density fluctuations at a nanometer scale are rather large: 12 and 20% in float glass and silica, for relative changes of fictive temperature equal to 13 and 25% r…
Besides the dynamical slowing down signaled by an enormous increase of the viscosity approaching the glass transition, structural glasses show interesting anomalous thermodynamic features at low temperatures that hint at peculiar deviations from Debye's law at low enough frequencies. Theory, numerical simulations, and experiments suggest that deviation from Debye's law is due to soft-localized glassy modes that populate the low-frequency spectrum. We study the localization properties of the low-frequency modes in a three-dimensional supercooled liquid model. The density of states $D(ω)$ is com…
This is a short account of the basic principles of a comprehensive theory of the vitreous state, looking at glasses and their eventual <<melting>> into a liquid state (the inverse glass <<transition>>) from the perspective of their low-temperature properties, then working all the way up to the melting temperature (and back again). The theory is still in the making, so only essential guidelines will be provided. There appears to be no ideal-glass transition, no ideal-glass state, but a first theoretical justification of the Vogel-Fulcher-Tamman law can be provided, making glasses truly fascinat…
The anomalous response of glasses in the echo amplitude experiment is explained in the presence of a magnetic field. We have considered the low energy excitations in terms of an effective two level system. The effective model is constructed on the flip-flop configuration of two interacting two level systems. The magnetic field affects the tunneling amplitude through the Aharanov-Bohm effect. The effective model has a lower scale of energy in addition to the new distribution of tunneling parameters which depend on the interaction. We are able to explain some features of echo amplitude versus a …
It is well known that amorphous solids display a phonon spectrum where the Debye $\sim ω^2$ law at low frequency melds into an anomalous excess-mode peak (the boson peak) before entering a quasi-localized regime at higher frequencies dominated by scattering. The microscopic origin of the boson peak has remained elusive despite various attempts to put it in a clear connection with structural disorder at the atomic/molecular level. Using numerical calculations on model systems, we show that the microscopic origin of the boson peak is directly controlled by the local breaking of center-inversion …
We present a novel mechanism for the anomalous behaviour of the specific heat in low-temperature amorphous solids. The analytic solution of a mean-field model belonging to the same universality class as high-dimensional glasses, the spherical perceptron, suggests that there exists a crossover temperature above which the specific heat scales linearly with temperature while below it a cubic scaling is displayed. This relies on two crucial features of the phase diagram: (i) The marginal stability of the free-energy landscape, which induces a gapless phase responsible for the emergence of a power-…
We study the spectral properties of a class of random matrices where the matrix elements depend exponentially on the distance between uniformly and randomly distributed points. This model arises naturally in various physical contexts, such as the diffusion of particles, slow relaxations in glasses, and scalar phonon localization. Using a combination of a renormalization group procedure and a direct moment calculation, we find the eigenvalue distribution density (i.e., the spectrum) and the localization properties of the eigenmodes, for arbitrary dimension. Finally, we discuss the physical impl…
The anomalous magnetic field dependence of dielectric properties of insulating glasses in the temperature interval $10mK<T<50mK$ is considered. In this temperature range, the dielectric permittivity is defined by the resonant contribution of tunneling systems. The external magnetic field regulates nuclear spins of tunneling atoms. This regulation suppresses a nuclear quadrupole interaction of these spins with lattice and, thus, affects the dielectric response of tunneling systems. It is demonstrated that in the absence of an external magnetic field the nuclear quadrupole interaction $b$ result…
Recently, progress has been made in the understanding of anomalous vibrational excitations in amorphous solids. In the lowest-frequency region, the vibrational spectrum follows a non-Debye quartic law, which persists up to zero frequency without any frequency gap. This gapless vibrational density of states (vDOS) suggests that glasses are on the verge of instability. This feature of marginal stability is now highlighted as a key concept in the theories of glasses. In particular, the elasticity theory based on marginal stability predicts the gapless vDOS. However, this theory yields a quadratic…
The anomalies of electromagnetic properties of carbon condensates are discussed. Basic attention has been done to electromagnetic properties of thin carbon films produced by means of sputtering of spectral pure graphite in electrical arc (CA films). The room temperature rf-to-dc conversion associated with the ac Josephson effect, the jumps of conductivity stipulated by variation of current and temperature and zero spin density can be pointed among the anomalous properties of CA films. The number of basic hypotheses are presented in trying to explain this anomalies. As the main hypothesis the h…
In order to point out the influence of thermal history (fictive temperature) and OH content on the elastic properties of silica glass, we have performed high resolution in situ Brillouin spectra of SiO2 glass from room temperature to the supercooled liquid at 1773K across the glass transition. The well known anomalous increase of elastic modulus in the glassy state and in the supercooled liquid regime is observed. No change of slope in the elastic moduli of silica appears as a characteristic of glass transition, on the contrary to what happens in various other glasses. We show that thermal his…
Both structural glasses and disordered crystals are known to exhibit anomalous thermal, vibrational, and acoustic properties at low temperatures or low energies, what is still a matter of lively debate. To shed light on this issue, we studied the halomethane family C-Br_n-Cl_4-n (n = 0,1,2) at low temperature where, despite being perfectly translationally ordered stable monoclinic crystals, glassy dynamical features had been reported from experiments and molecular dynamics simulations. For n = 1,2 dynamic disorder originates by the random occupancy of the same lattice sites by either Cl or Br …
The thermal conductivity, heat capacity and heat release of NbTi, NbTi-H and NbTi-D were measured at low temperatures. All three systems reveal low temperature anomalies typical for structural glasses. It is shown that above a concentration of 2\% H or D the tunneling states of the NbTi matrix disappear. Therefore, for higher concentration it is a good system to proof how the change of the mass of tunneling atoms influences the low temperature anomalies. For the heat capacity we found the expected isotopic effect. However, the anomalous isotopic effect observed for the heat release data cannot…
The quantum excitations in glasses have long presented a set of puzzles for condensed matter physicists. A common view is that they are largely disordered analogs of elementary excitations in crystals, supplemented by two level systems which are chemically local entities coming from disorder. A radical revision of this picture argues that the excitations in low temperature glasses are deeply connected to the energy landscape of the glass when it vitrifies: the excitations are not low excited states built on a single ground state but locally defined resonances, high in the energy spectrum of a …
Glasses and disordered materials are known to display anomalous features in the density of states, in the specific heat and in thermal transport. Nevertheless, in recent years, the question whether these properties are really anomalous (and peculiar of disordered systems) or rather more universal than previously thought, has emerged. New experimental and theoretical observations have questioned the origin of the boson peak and the linear in T specific heat exclusively from disorder and TLS. The same properties have been indeed observed in ordered or minimally disordered compounds and in incomm…
We use finite size scaling to study Ising spin glasses in two spatial dimensions. The issue of universality is addressed by comparing discrete and continuous probability distributions for the quenched random couplings. The sophisticated temperature dependency of the scaling fields is identified as the major obstacle that has impeded a complete analysis. Once temperature is relinquished in favor of the correlation length as the basic variable, we obtain a reliable estimation of the anomalous dimension and of the thermal critical exponent. Universality among binary and Gaussian couplings is conf…
In these lectures I discuss long-scale properties of fluctuating polymerized membranes in the presence of network anisotropy and random heterogeneities. Amazingly, even infinitesimal amount of these seemingly innocuous but physically important ingredients in the membrane's internal structure leads to a wealth of striking qualitatively new phenomena. Anisotropy leads to a ``tubule'' phase that is intermediate in its properties and location on the phase diagram between previously discussed ``crumpled'' and ``flat'' phases. At low temperature, network heterogeneity generates conformationally glas…
We study the dynamical melting of "hot" one-dimensional many-body localized systems. As disorder is weakened below a critical value these non-thermal quantum glasses melt via a continuous dynamical phase transition into classical thermal liquids. By accounting for collective resonant tunneling processes, we derive and numerically solve an effective model for such quantum-to-classical transitions and compute their universal critical properties. Notably, the classical thermal liquid exhibits a broad regime of anomalously slow sub-diffusive equilibration dynamics and energy transport. The subdiff…
