We study the effect of freezing the positions of a fraction c of particles from an equilibrium configuration of a supercooled liquid at a temperature T. We show that within the Random First-Order Transition theory pinning particles leads to an ideal glass transition for a critical fraction c=c_K(T) even for moderate super-cooling, e.g. close to the Mode-Coupling transition temperature. By using static and dynamic mean field theory and a real space renormalization group approach we derive the phase diagram in the T-c plane and the critical properties of the transition, in particular the growth law of length and time scales. We also show that for c=c_K(T) the typical distance between frozen particles is related to the static point-to-set lengthscale of the unconstrainedliquid. We discuss what are the main differences when particles are frozen in other geometries and not from an equilibrium configuration. Finally, we explain why the glass transition induced by freezing particles provides a new and very promising avenue of researchto probe the glassy state and ascertain, or disprove, the validity of the theories of the glass transition.

Ideal glass transitions by random pinning

244th National Meeting (2012)

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