LETTER TO THE EDITOR Dynamics and effective thermodynamics of a model structural glass

Abstract. We use Monte Carlo methods to investigale a purely dynamical madel for structural glasses. We observe stretched exponential decays of the equilibrium autocomhlion function and measure the late-time relaxalion limes r. These diverge with temperature following a Vogel-Fulcher law. We also study systems which are quenched deeply and then re-heated. This gives a peak in the effective specific heat with pmpenies matching those of the glass transitiok?he model thus reproduces the main phenomenology of glasses and the glass transition. It is thought that structural glasses are not equilibrium phases but are materials trapped in long-lived metastable states. However, the mechanism by which this trapping occurs is not known, as is how its onset near a glass can give rise to non-exponential decays of autocordation functions, and to a divergence in the relaxation time at a non-zero temperature. In addition it is not obvious how such a purely dynamical outlook can yield the first-order-like thermal properties of the glass transition. Given these difficulties much effort has been devoted to developing a well-defined dynamical model which reproduces these phenomena. In this Letter we present a purely dynamical model for smctural glasses that test