From Spin Glasses to Glasses

ABSTRACTWe discuss some aspects of the links between the behaviour and theory of spin glasses and that of structural glasses of the fragile type. We review the present status of the conjecture according to which a certain class of spin glass mean field theories (those with first order transitions) could provide a mean field theory for the glass transition. Recent developments pointing in that direction include the existence of spin glasses without disorder, and the general link between Mode-Coupling Theory (MCT) and the motion of a particle in a random potential. This link enables one to generalize the MCT equations for temperatures below the glass transition, and to describe aging effects. We compare these results with those obtained within more phonomonological ‘trap’ models.