Solid-that-flows picture of glass-forming liquids

Abstract

This perspective article reviews arguments that glass-forming liquids are different from those of standard liquid-state theory, which typically have a viscosity in the mPa$\cdot$s range and relaxation times of order picoseconds. These numbers grow dramatically and become $10^{12}-10^{15}$ times larger for liquids cooled toward the glass transition. This translates into a qualitative difference, and below the ``solidity length'' which is of order one micron at the glass transition, a glass-forming liquid behaves much like a solid. Recent numerical evidence for the solidity of ultraviscous liquids is reviewed, and experimental consequences are discussed in relation to dynamic heterogeneity, frequency-dependent linear-response functions, and the temperature dependence of the average relaxation time.