Despite decades of theoretical studies, the nature of the glass transition remains elusive and
debated, while the existence of structural predictors of its dynamics is a major open …

Amorphous solids lack long-range order. Therefore identifying structural defects—akin to
dislocations in crystalline solids—that carry plastic flow in these systems remains a daunting …

Glassy solids exhibit a wide variety of generic thermomechanical properties, ranging from
universal anomalous specific heat at cryogenic temperatures to nonlinear plastic yielding …

It is now well established that glasses feature quasilocalized nonphononic excitations—
coined “soft spots”—, which follow a universal ω 4 density of states in the limit of low …

It has been a long-standing materials science challenge to establish structure-property
relations in amorphous solids. Here we introduce a rotationally non-invariant local structure …

The plastic deformation of crystalline materials can be understood by considering their
structural defects such as disclinations and dislocations. Although also glasses are solids …

Note: This Perspective offers a progress report for the Simons collaboration “Cracking the
Glass Problem,” of which the authors are some of the principal investigators. While the …

Plastic deformation in amorphous solids is known to be carried by stress-induced localized
rearrangements of a few tens of particles, accompanied by the conversion of elastic energy …

Being able to predict the failure of materials based on structural information is a fundamental
issue with enormous practical and industrial relevance for the monitoring of devices and …

Structural glasses formed by quenching a melt possess a population of soft quasilocalized
excitations—often called “soft spots”—that are believed to play a key role in various …