The slow dynamics of glassy materials: Insights from computer simulations

Abstract

The physics of glasses can be studied from many viewpoints, from material scientists interested in the development of new materials to statistical physicists inventing new theoretical tools to deal with disordered systems. In these lectures I described a variety of physical phenomena observed in actual glassy materials, from disordered magnetic systems to soft gels. Despite the very large gap between experimental and numerical time windows, I showed that computer simulations represent an efficient theoretical tool which can shed light on the microscopic origins of glassy dynamics.