Adam-Gibbs model in the density scaling regime and its implications for the configurational entropy scaling

Abstract

To solve a long-standing problem of condensed matter physics with determining a proper description of the thermodynamic evolution of the time scale of molecular dynamics near the glass transition, we extend the well-known Adam-Gibbs model to describe the temperature-volume dependence of structural relaxation times, ${\tau}_{\alpha} (T,V)$. We employ the thermodynamic scaling idea reflected in the density scaling power law, ${\tau}_{\alpha}=f(T^{-1} V^{-\gamma } ) $, recently acknowledged as a valid unifying concept in the glass transition physics, to discriminate between physically relevant and irrelevant attempts at formulating the temperature-volume representations of the Adam-Gibbs model. As a consequence, we determine a straightforward relation between the structural relaxation time ${\tau}_{\alpha}$ and the configurational entropy $S_c$, giving evidence that also $S_c (T,V)=g(T^{-1} V^{-\gamma} )$ with the exponent {\gamma} that enables to scale ${\tau}_{\alpha} (T,V)$. This important finding has meaningful implications for the linkage between thermodynamics and molecular dynamics near the glass transition, because it implies that ${\tau}_{\alpha}$ can be scaled with $S_c$.