Low temperature universality in disordered solids

Abstract

The low temperature universal properties in disordered and amorphous solids are considered. We introduce a model that includes two types of two level systems (TLSs), which, based on their local symmetry, interact weakly or strongly with the phonon field. This accounts well for the experimental results, and addresses some long-standing questions: the nature of the TLSs; the smallness and universality of the phonon attenuation, and the energy scale of $3$K below which universality is observed. Our model describes disordered lattices; we also discuss its application to amorphous solids.