Evidence for glass and spin-glass phase transitions from the dynamic susceptibility

Abstract

The authors present evidence that there is a phase transition, with a diverging static susceptibility, underlying the transformation of a liq. into a glass. The dielec. susceptibility, at frequencies above its characteristic value, shows a power-law tail extending over many decades to higher frequencies. An extrapolation of this behavior to the temp. where the dynamics becomes arrested indicates a diverging susceptibility. The authors present evidence for analogous behavior in the magnetic susceptibility of a paramagnet approaching the spin-glass transition. The similarity of the response in these two glassy systems suggests that some conventional lore, such as that the spin glass shows evidence for a diverging correlation length only in a nonlinear but not in the linear susceptibility, may be invalid.