Numerical investigation of the equilibrium Kauzmann transition in a two-dimensional atomistic glass

[2507.03590] Numerical investigation of the equilibrium Kauzmann transition in a two-dimensional atomistic glass Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Condensed Matter > Soft Condensed Matter arXiv:2507.03590 (cond-mat) [Submitted on 4 Jul 2025] Title: Numerical investigation of the equilibrium Kauzmann transition in a two-dimensional atomistic glass Authors: Gerhard Jung , Misaki Ozawa , Giulio Biroli , Ludovic Berthier View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: Dense liquids gradually transform into non-equilibrium amorphous solids as they pass through the experimental glass transition. Experimentally, ergodicity is lost because measurements are conducted within a finite time window. More than seventy years ago, Kauzmann posed a fundamental question: If experiments could run indefinitely, would there exist a critical temperature at which an ergodicity-breaking phase transition occurs? Random first-order transitions represent the modern theoretical framework for this idea, rigorously established in the mean-field limit of high-dimensional atomistic systems and several idealized physical models. However, achieving theoretical understanding in finite dimensions is challenging, while experimental and numerical limitations on accessible timescales hinder direct observation of the putative Kauzmann transition. Here, we overcome this longstanding barrier by developing a computational strategy that combines three advanced Monte Carlo methods to access the equilibrium thermodynamic properties of a two-dimensional atomistic glass-former down to zero temperature across a range of system sizes. This enables us to directly measure thermodynamic and structural observables that provide unambiguous evidence that the system undergoes a Kauzmann transition at a temperature that vanishes in the thermodynamic limit. This transition is towards an ideal glass state characterized by a complex energy landscape with a hierarchical organization of low-lying states. Our results are the first demonstration that computer simulations can fully probe the statistical mechanics of the bulk transition to a non-ergodic glass state. We anticipate that our study will serve as a foundation for future simulation work on larger systems, three-dimensional materials, and more complex glass-forming models to fully elucidate the nature of the glass state of matter. Subjects: Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) ; Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn); Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) Cite as: arXiv:2507.03590 [cond-mat.soft] (or arXiv:2507.03590v1 [cond-mat.soft] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2507.03590 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Journal reference: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA 123, e2612355123 (2026) Related DOI : https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2612355123 Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources Submission history From: Gerhard Jung [ view email ] [v1] Fri, 4 Jul 2025 14:01:02 UTC (9,536 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: cond-mat.soft < prev | next > new | recent | 2025-07 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.dis-nn cond-mat.mtrl-sci References & Citations SciX Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) IArxiv recommender toggle IArxiv Recommender ( What is IArxiv? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. 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