Master equation approach to the non-equilibrium negative specific heat at the glass transition

Although glasses are disordered and complex systems, we show that important characteristics of the glass transition, such as a negative measured specific heat in the transition region, can be understood using a simple model of thermally activated hopping in a two-level system. The dynamics of the heating of a nonequilibrium state is modeled by a master equation. The calculation illustrates the connection between equilibrium and nonequilibrium, in particular, the determination of transition rates using the principle of detailed balance. (c) 2005 American Association of Physics Teachers.