Dresden 2026 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 35: Glasses and Glass Transition (joint session DY/CPP)

CPP 35.4: Talk

Wednesday, March 11, 2026, 12:15–12:30, ZEU/0118

An Analytical Relation between Thermodynamics and Dynamics in a Trap-like Model of Supercooled Liquids — •Simon G. Kellers, Anshul D. S. Parmar, and Andreas Heuer — Institute of Physical Chemistry, University of Münster, Corrensstraße 28/30, 48149 Münster, Germany

Recent studies on 2D non-network glass formers, enabled by the million-fold acceleration of Swap Monte Carlo, have revealed clear deviations from Gaussian behavior in the inherent-structure (IS) density of states and linked these features to the fragile-to-strong crossover (FSC) and the emergence of a low-energy depletion regime.

Here, we establish such a connection by introducing a direct analytical relation between thermodynamic PEL statistics and dynamical properties within a trap-like description of supercooled liquids. We illustrate this relation using a binomial distribution of IS states and show that it naturally yields a characteristic trap size for polydisperse systems. This trap size reflects the effective number of degrees of freedom that collectively determine the depth and barrier of a metabasin participating in an activated relaxation event, thereby offering a physically transparent measure of cooperativity.

By combining this analytical framework with simulation data for a polydisperse 2D glass former, we obtain a coherent and quantitatively consistent landscape-based interpretation of the FSC.

[1] Andreas Heuer, J. Condens. Matter Phys. 2008, 20, 373101

[2] Anshul D. S. Parmar, Andreas Heuer, 2023 arXiv preprint arXiv:2307.10143

Keywords: Trap Model; Supercooled Liquids; Potential Energy Landscape