Generalized viscoelastic theory of the glass transition for strongly coupled, classical, one-component plasmas.

Abstract

We present a new theory of dynamic correlations for a classical one-component plasma in strong Coulomb coupling within the generalized viscoelastic formalism. The dynamic structure factor and the coefficient of shear viscosity for the one-component plasma in a metastable supercooled state are investigated and the possibility of a glass transition is predicted. Relevance to laboratory experiment is pointed out through analyses of the metastable-state lifetimes against homogeneous nucleation of the crystalline state.