In and out of equilibrium.

Albert Einstein's work on brownian motion showed how thermal equilibrium could be brought about by work exchanged through thermal fluctuations and viscous dissipation. Glasses are out-of-equilibrium systems in which this exchange happens at widely different timescales simultaneously. Theory then suggests the fascinating possibility that such behaviour may lead to a more general form of thermalization, in which the effective temperature shared by all components differs at each timescale.

Metastable states in glassy systems.

Truly stable metastable states are an artifact of the mean-field approximation or the zero-temperature limit. If such appealing concepts in glass theory as configurational entropy are to have a meaning beyond these approximations, one needs to cast them in a form involving states with finite lifetimes. Starting from elementary examples and using the results of Gaveau and Schulman, we propose a simple expression for the configurational entropy and revisit the question of taking flat averages over metastable states. The construction is applicable to finite-dimensional systems, and we explicitly show that for simple mean-field glass models it recovers, justifies, and generalizes the known results. The calculation emphasises the appearance of new dynamical order parameters.

Edwards' measures: a thermodynamic construction for dense granular media and glasses.

We present numerical support for the hypothesis that macroscopic observables of dense granular media and glasses can be evaluated from averages over typical blocked configurations: we construct the corresponding measure for a class of finite-dimensional systems and compare its predictions for various observables with the outcome of the out of equilibrium dynamics at large times. We discuss in detail the connection with the effective temperatures that appear in out of equilibrium glass theories, as well as the relation between our computation and those based on "inherent structure" arguments. A short version of this work has appeared in Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 5034 (2000).

Phase separation in a chaotic flow.

The phase separation between two immiscible liquids advected by a bidimensional velocity field is investigated numerically by solving the corresponding Cahn-Hilliard equation. We study how the spinodal decomposition process depends on the presence-or absence-of Lagrangian chaos. A fully chaotic flow, in particular, limits the growth of domains, and for unequal volume fractions of the liquids, a characteristic exponential distribution of droplet sizes is obtained. The limiting domain size results from a balance between chaotic mixing and spinodal decomposition, measured in terms of Lyapunov exponent and diffusivity constant, respectively.

Dynamic ultrametricity in spin glasses.

We investigate the dynamics of spin glasses from the "rheological" point of view, in which aging is suppressed by the action of small, nonconservative forces. The different features can be expressed in terms of the scaling of relaxation times with the magnitude of the driving force, which plays the role of the critical parameter. Stated in these terms, ultrametricity loses much of its mystery and can be checked rather easily. This approach also seems a natural starting point to investigate what would be the real-space structures underlying the hierarchy of time scales. We study in detail the appearance of this many-scale behavior in a mean-field model, in which dynamic ultrametricity is clearly present. A similar analysis is performed on numerical results obtained for a three-dimensional spin glass: In that case, our results are compatible with either that dynamic ultrametricity is absent or that it develops so slowly that even in experimental time-windows it is still hardly observable.

Edwards' measures for powders and glasses

Can one construct a thermodynamics for compact, slowly moving powders and grains? A few years ago, Edwards proposed a possible step in this direction, raising the fascinating perspective that such systems have a statistical mechanics of their own, different from that of Maxwell, Boltzmann, and Gibbs, allowing us to have some information while still ignoring dynamic details. Recent developments in the theory of glasses have come to confirm these ideas within mean field. In order to go beyond, we explicitly generate Edwards' measure in a 3D model. Comparison of the results with the irreversible compaction data shows very good agreement. The present framework immediately suggests new experimental checks.

A two-time-scale, two-temperature scenario for nonlinear rheology

We investigate a general scenario for "glassy" or "jammed" systems driven by an external, nonconservative force, analogous to a shear force in a fluid. In this scenario, the drive results in the suppression of the usual aging process, and the correlation and response functions become time translation invariant. The relaxation time and the response functions are then dependent on the intensity of the drive and on temperature. We investigate this dependence within the framework of a dynamical closure approximation that becomes exact for disordered, fully connected models. The relaxation time is shown to be a decreasing function of the drive ("shear thinning" effect). The correlation functions below the glass transition temperature (Tc) display a two-time-scale relaxation pattern, similar to that observed at equilibrium slightly above Tc. We also study the violation of the fluctuation-dissipation relationship in the driven system. This violation is very reminiscent of the one that takes place in a system aging below Tc at zero drive. It involves, in particular the appearance of a two-temperature regime, in the sense of an effective fluctuation-dissipation temperature [L. F. Cugliandolo, J. Kurchan, and L. Peliti, Phys. Rev. E 55, 3898 (1997)]. Although our results are, in principle, limited to the closure relations that hold for mean-field models, we argue that a number of the salient features are not inherent to the approximation scheme, and may be tested in experiments and simulations.

Topological aspects of quantum chaos.

Quantized classically chaotic maps on a toroidal two-dimensional phase space are studied. A discrete, topological criterion for phase-space localization is presented. To each eigenfunction is associated an integer, analogous to a quantized Hall conductivity, which tests the way the eigenfunction explores the phase space as some boundary conditions are changed. The correspondence between delocalization and chaotic classical dynamics is discussed, as well as the role of degeneracies of the eigenspectrum in the transition from localized to delocalized states. The general results are illustrated with a particular model.