Anomalous relaxation in complex systems: from stretched to compressed exponentials
Abstract
We attempt to give a bird's eye view of the physical mechanisms leading to anomalous relaxation, and the relation of this phenomenon with anomalous diffusion and transport. Whereas in some cases these two notions are indeed deeply related, this needs not to be the case. We review several models for stretched exponential relaxation (diffusion in traps, broad distribution of relaxation times, two-step relaxation) and insist on the physical interpretation to be given to the stretching exponent β. We then discuss compressed exponentials which have been recently observed in a variety of systems, from soft glassy materials to granular packs. We describe a model where slow rearrangement events occur randomly in space and create long ranged elastics strains, leading to β=3/2.