Self-organized criticality below the glass transition

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Bucknell University Lewisburg, PA 17837, USA
² Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Göttingen Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany

Received: 27 April 2006
Accepted: 31 October 2006

Abstract

We obtain evidence that the dynamics of glassy systems below the glass transition is characterized by self-organized criticality. Using molecular-dynamics simulations of a model glass-former we identify clusters of cooperatively jumping particles. We find string-like clusters whose size is power-law-distributed not only close to but for all temperatures below , indicating self-organized criticality which we interpret as a freezing in of critical behavior.