The entropy of supercooled liquids at the absolute zero

Abstract

The purpose of the present article is to investigate the entropy of supercooled liquids at the absolute zero by the methods of statistical mechanics. We shall in this way obtain a more precise idea of the factors which can make the entropy of a supercooled liquid or glass greater than that of the corresponding crystal. Indeed, we shall be able to show that the excess entropy of a glass is related in a simple and definite manner to the properties of the glass when regarded as a quantum system with its degrees of freedom in the next to the lowest quantum state. Incidentally, we shall also show that different crystalline forms of a substance have the same entropy at the absolute zero, irrespective of the number of atoms in the unit of structure of the crystal, in contradiction to the suggestion recently made by Eastman that the entropy is greater, the larger the number of atoms in the unit cell.

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