Topological Constraint Theory of Glass
John Mauro, Corning Glass

A microscopic physical description of the glassy state long has eluded condensed matter physicists because of the complicated non-crystalline nature of glass structure. Currently, many theorists turn to molecular dynamics or other atomistic simulation techniques to determine the structure of various glass families. Although available computing power has increased exponentially during the past several decades, it will be at least another 20 to 30 years before enough computing power is available for direct molecular dynamics simulations of glass on a realistic laboratory time scale. Fortunately, topological constraint theory provides another path forward. It focuses on the important microscopic physics governing the thermal, mechanical, and rheological properties of glass, while filtering out unnecessary details that ultimately do not affect its macroscopic properties. Topological constraint theory has been successful in predicting the composition dependence of glass properties and is used as a tool for the quantitative design of new industrial glass compositions, such as Corning® Gorilla® Glass.