Spin-glass approach to low-temperature anomalies in glasses

Abstract

We discuss a spin-glass-type approach to the physics of structural glasses, which leads to a class of models that exhibit both glassy low-temperature phases and double- and single-well configurations in their potential energy landscape. The low-temperature anomalies characteristic of amorphous systems are reproduced, and within our model the universality issue can be illuminated. We consider the interaction between localized excitations and phonons, and we present a general expression for the dynamic susceptibility, from which dynamic properties such as the internal friction can be calculated.