Thermodynamics and the glass transition in model energy landscapes

Abstract

We determine the liquid-state thermodynamics for a model energy landscape corresponding to soft spheres with a mean-field attraction. We consider two approximations, in which the distribution of potential energy minima is either Gaussian or binomial, and for each we calculate the liquid spinodal, binodal, and "effective" glass transition locus. The resulting models provide a unified description of the liquid state across the complete range from low-temperature glassiness to high-temperature instability with respect to the vapor phase.