Europhys. Lett., 73 (4), pp. 492-498 (2006)
DOI: 10.1209/epl/i2005-10420-8

Metastable states, relaxation times and free-energy barriers in finite-dimensional glassy systems

S. Franz

The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics Strada Costiera 11, P.O. Box 586, I-34100 Trieste, Italy

received 12 October 2005; accepted in final form 12 December 2005
published online 6 January 2006

Abstract
In this letter we discuss metastability in a long-but-finite range disordered model for the glass transition. We show that relaxation is dominated by configuration belonging to metastable states and associate an in-principle computable free-energy barrier to the equilibrium relaxation time. Adam-Gibbs-like relaxation times appear naturally in this approach.

PACS
05.20.-y - Classical statistical mechanics.
75.10.Nr - Spin-glass and other random models.

© EDP Sciences 2006