Wave attenuation in glasses: Rayleigh and generalized-Rayleigh scattering scaling

Abstract

The attenuation of long-wavelength phonons (waves) by glassy disorder plays a central role in various glass anomalies, yet it is neither fully characterized, nor fully understood. Of particular importance is the scaling of the attenuation rate $\Gamma(k)$ with small wavenumbers $k\!\to\!0$ in the thermodynamic limit of macroscopic glasses. Here we use a combination of theory and extensive computer simulations to show that the macroscopic low-frequency behavior emerges at intermediate frequencies in finite-size glasses, above a recently identified crossover wavenumber $k_\dagger$, where phonons are no longer quantized into bands. For $k\!<\!k_\dagger$, finite-size effects dominate $\Gamma(k)$, which is quantitatively described by a theory of disordered phonon bands. For $k\!>\!k_\dagger$, we find that $\Gamma(k)$ is affected by the number of quasilocalized nonphononic excitations, a generic signature of glasses that feature a universal density of states. In particular, we show that in a frequency range in which this number is small, $\Gamma(k)$ follows a Rayleigh scattering scaling $\sim\!k^{d+1}$ ($d$ is the spatial dimension), and that in a frequency range in which this number is sufficiently large, the recently observed generalized-Rayleigh scaling of the form $\sim\!k^{d+1}\log\!{(k_0/k)}$ emerges ($k_0\!>k_\dagger$ is a characteristic wavenumber). Our results suggest that macroscopic glasses --- and, in particular, glasses generated by conventional laboratory quenches that are known to strongly suppress quasilocalized nonphononic excitations --- exhibit Rayleigh scaling at the lowest wavenumbers $k$ and a crossover to generalized-Rayleigh scaling at higher $k$. Some supporting experimental evidence from recent literature is presented.