A general approach to systems with randomly pinned particles: Unfolding and clarifying the Random Pinning Glass Transition

Institut Physique Théorique (IPhT) CEA Saclay, and CNRS URA 2306 - 91191 Gif-Sur-Yvette, France, EU and Université Pierre et Marie Curie - boîte 121, 4 Place Jussieu, 75252 Paris cédex 05, France, EU

Received: 21 November 2012
Accepted: 7 February 2013

Abstract

Pinning a fraction of particles from an equilibrium configuration in supercooled liquids has been recently proposed as a way to induce a new kind of glass transition, the Random Pinning Glass Transition (RPGT). The RPGT has been predicted to share some features of standard thermodynamic glass transitions and usual first-order ones. Thanks to its special nature, the approach and the study of the RPGT appears to be a fairly reachable task compared to the daunting problem of inspecting standard glass transitions. In this letter we generalize the pinning particle procedure. We study a mean-field system where the pinned configuration is extracted from the equilibrium distribution at temperature T′ and the thermodynamics of the non-pinned particles is observed at a lower temperature T. A more complicated physics emerges from this generalization eventually clarifying the origin and the peculiar characteristics of the RPGT.