A glass-like behavior in the low-temperature specific heat is a natural property of any real crystal

2007/10/09 by A. Cano, Cano, A., A. P. Levanyuk +3
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.stat-mech

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0710.1837

5 pages, 1 figure

arxiv created 2007/10/09 · openalex publication_date 2007/10/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We provide a rigorous calculation of the free energy of a non-metallic crystal containing a small concentration of defects. The low-temperature leading contribution is found to be ∝ T². This further gives a linear-in-T low-temperature specific heat as that exhibited by glasses. These results also show that, similarly to what happens in glasses, the long-wavelength spectrum of a nearly perfect crystal does not suffice to determine its low-temperature behavior.

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