A thermodynamic theory of supercooled liquids

A novel thermodynamic theory of the properties of supercooled liquids as they get glassy is presented. It is based on the postulated existence of a narrowly avoided thermodynamic phase transition at a temperature T* Tm, where Tm is the melting point, and the “avoidance” is due to geometric frustration. We show that as a consequence two large emergent length scales develop at temperatures less than T*, and we also show that this picture is consistent with appropriate statistical mechanical models. A theoretical expression is obtained which permits collapse of the viscosity versus temperature of all known glass-formers onto a single master-curve.