The Glass Transition and the Jarzynski Equality
Date
2008-10-02
Authors
Williams, Stephen R.
Searles, Debra J.
Evans, Denis J.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Abstract
A simple model featuring a double well potential is used to represent a
liquid that is quenched from an ergodic state into a history dependent glassy
state. Issues surrounding the application of the Jarzynski Equality to glass
formation are investigated. We demonstrate that the Jarzynski Equality gives
the free energy difference between the initial state and the state we would
obtain if the glass relaxed to true thermodynamic equilibrium. We derive new
variations of the Jarzynski Equality which are relevant to the history
dependent glassy state rather than the underlying equilibrium state. It is
shown how to compute the free energy differences for the nonequilibrium history
dependent glassy state such that it remains consistent with the standard
expression for the entropy and with the second law inequality.
Description
Keywords
Keywords: Free energy; Glass; Thermodynamics; Double-well potentials; Energy differences; Equilibrium states; Ergodic; Free-energy difference; Glass formation; Glassy states; Initial states; Jarzynski equality; Non-equilibrium; Second-law; Simple modeling; Thermody
Citation
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Source
Journal of Chemical Physics
Type
Journal article