Entropy Crises in Glasses and Random Heteropolymers

The concept of random first order transitions with configurational entropy crises provides a theoretical framework for understanding the glass transition. This paper discusses such transitions in exactly solvable spin glass models and in globular random heteropolymers and their relation to glass transitions in molecular fluids and polymers. The Vogel-Fulcher law is shown to be related to the search time through the energy landscape of an “entropic droplet.”