Abstract
THE low temperature specific heat of glasses and amorphous solids is characterised by an anomalous linear variation with temperature1–6. Of the proposed theoretical explanations (reviewed by Leadbetter7), the most favoured attributes this anomaly to localised two-level systems8,9 or to low frequency vibrations of single atoms or molecules trapped in cavities10,11. It is difficult, however, to conceive of a level-splitting mechanism that would be sufficiently general to explain the apparent universality of the anomaly. Moreover, several impurities that could have produced two-level systems have now been eliminated as possible candidates12,13. An explanation based on low frequency vibrations of atoms or molecules in cavities rests on two ad hoc assumptions about the size and distribution of the cavities, and Stephens et al.5 argue that to account for the experimental results, these assumptions seem to be physically implausible.
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COUCHMAN, P., REYNOLDS, C. & COTTERILL, R. Temperature dependence of the anomalous specific heat of glasses and amorphous solids. Nature 259, 108–109 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/259108a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/259108a0
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