Multiple Glasses in Asymmetric Binary Hard Spheres

Abstract

Multiple distinct glass states occur in binary hard-sphere mixtures with constituents of very disparate sizes according to the mode-coupling theory of the glass transition (MCT), distinguished by considering whether small particles remain mobile or not, and whether small particles contribute significantly to perturb the big-particle structure or not. In the idealized glass, the four different glasses are separated by sharp transitions that give rise to higher-order transition phenomena involving logarithmic decay laws, and to anomalous power-law-like diffusion. The phenomena are argued to be expected generally in glass-forming mixtures.