Kovacs effect in solvable model glasses

Abstract

The Kovacs protocol, based on the temperature shift experiment originally conceived by A.J. Kovacs and applied on glassy polymers, is implemented in an exactly solvable model with facilitated dynamics. This model is based on interacting fast and slow modes represented respectively by spherical spins and harmonic oscillator variables. Due to this fundamental property and to slow dynamics, the model reproduces the characteristic non-monotonic evolution known as the ``Kovacs effect'', observed in polymers, spin glasses, in granular materials and models of molecular liquids, when similar experimental protocols are implemented.