Title
Can a Gardner transition explain the marginal stability of jammed packings?
Speaker
Francesco Zamponi (ENS, Paris)
Abstract
I will reconsider the replica theory of the glass phase and jamming of
hard spheres in the large space dimension limit.
Building upon the exact expression for the free-energy functional
obtained previously, we find that the Random First Order Transition
(RFOT) scenario is realized here with two thermodynamic transitions:
the usual Kauzmann point associated with entropy crisis, and a further
transition at higher pressures in which a glassy structure of
micro-states is developed within each amorphous state. This kind of
glass-glass transition into a phase dominating the higher densities
was described years ago by Elisabeth Gardner, and may well be a
generic feature of RFOT. Micro states that are small excitations of an
amorphous matrix -- separated by low entropic or energetic barriers --
thus emerge naturally, and modify the high pressure (or low
temperature) limit of the thermodynamic functions. The Gardner phase
is expected to be a full replica symmetry breaking phase, where glassy
states are marginally stable. This could provide an explanation for
the marginality of jammed packings.
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