1/f noise and dynamical heterogeneity in glasses.

We investigate the relationship between two experimental sets of data related to dynamical heterogeneity, the coefficient alpha of 1/f(alpha) dipolar noise derived from the nonexponentiality of the dielectric or magnetic response near and above the mean relaxation time, and the range Delta(z) of the relaxation times. We find that in different classes of glasses, including spin and proton glasses, relaxor materials, and glass-forming liquids, this relationship exhibits the same trend.

Proton glass freezing in hydrated lysozyme powders.

At room temperature, the dielectric relaxation of hydrated powder of the protein lysozyme is known to be due to protons migrating between ionized side chains. A recent study of this relaxation at lower temperatures suggested a behavior typical of proton glasses. An analysis of the complex dielectric susceptibility by a temperature-frequency plot presented here has revealed that ergodicity is broken due to the divergence of the longest relaxation time at 266 K, indicating specifically that this hydrated protein is a proton glass. A change in the temperature behavior of the static dielectric constant and the average relaxation frequency at 273 K indicates a further transition occurring at this temperature, whose nature remains to be investigated.