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Colloquium: Random first order transition theory concepts in biology and physics

T. R. Kirkpatrick* and D. Thirumalai†

T. R. Kirkpatrick*

  • Institute for Physical Science and Technology, and Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA

D. Thirumalai†

  • Institute for Physical Science and Technology, and Department of Chemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 0742, USA

  • *tedkirkp@umd.edu
  • †dave.thirumalai@gmail.com
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Rev. Mod. Phys. 87, 183 – Published 3 March, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.87.183

Abstract

The routine transformation of a liquid, as it is rapidly cooled, resulting in glass formation, is remarkably complex. A theoretical explanation of the dynamics associated with this process has remained one of the major unsolved problems in condensed matter physics. The random first order transition (RFOT) theory, which was proposed over 25 years ago, provides a theoretical basis for explaining much of the phenomena associated with glass forming materials. It links or relates multiple metastable states, slow or glassy dynamics, dynamic heterogeneity, and both a dynamical and an ideal glass transition. Remarkably, the major concepts in the RFOT theory can also be profitably used to understand many spectacular phenomena in biology and condensed matter physics, as illustrated here. The presence of a large number of metastable states and the dynamics in such complex landscapes in biological systems from molecular to cellular scale and beyond leads to behavior, which is amenable to descriptions based on the RFOT theory. Somewhat surprisingly even intratumor heterogeneity arising from variations in cancer metastasis in different cells is hauntingly similar to glassy systems. There are also deep connections between glass physics and electronically disordered systems undergoing a metal-insulator transition, aging effects in which quantum effects play a role, and the physics of superglasses (a phase that is simultaneously a superfluid and a frozen amorphous structure). It is argued that the common aspect in all these diverse phenomena is that multiple symmetry unrelated states governing both the equilibrium and dynamical behavior—a lynchpin in the RFOT theory—controls the behavior observed in these unrelated systems.

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Rev. Mod. Phys. 87, 183– Published 3 March, 2015
  • Received 4 April 2014
Article part of CHORUS

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