Relaxation processes and entropic traps in the Backgammon model

Abstract

We examine the density-density correlation function in a model recently proposed to study the effect of entropy barriers in glassy dynamics. We find that the relaxation proceeds in two steps with a fast beta process followed by alpha relaxation. The results are physically interpreted in the context of an adiabatic approximation which allows to separate the two processes, and to define an effective temperature in the off-equilibrium dynamics of the model. We investigate the behavior of the response function associated to the density, and find violations of the fluctuation dissipation theorem.