Guides to solving the glass transition problem

Relaxation in glass-forming substances is necessarily a many-body problem because of intermolecular interactions and constraints. Results from molecular dynamics simulations and experiments are used to reveal the critical elements and general effects originating from many-body relaxation, but not dealt with in conventional theories of the glass transition. Although many-body relaxation is still an unsolved problem in statistical mechanics, these critical elements and general effects will serve as guides to the construction of a satisfactory theory of the glass transition. This effort is aided by concepts drawn from the coupling model, whose predictions have been shown to be consistent with experimental facts. 1