Ideal glass verified as the dissipative structure of a silicate glass after long aging below the Kauzmann temperature

Abstract

The existence of an ideal glass was experimentally verified as the dissipative structure in the non-equilibrium steady-state of a silicate glass which equilibrated in the structure after long aging. The glass had zero residual entropy when it equilibrated at the aging temperature T a < the Kauzmann temperature T K . The verification of an ideal glass is the resolution of the Kauzmann paradox. An ideal glass is a non-equilibrium steady system, not an equilibrium system. Moreover, the glass produced a spontaneous linear volume contraction which is an irreversible relaxation process with an extremely long relaxation time. This relaxation process means a negative entropy production in an ideal glass, which results from the local crystallization of molecules in an equilibrated amorphous phase of the glass.