Hartarsky I., Toninelli C. Kinetically Constrained Models 2025

Textbook in PDF format

This book offers an in-depth review of kinetically constrained models (KCMs), a topic that lies at the crossroads of probability and statistical mechanics. KCMs have captivated physicists ever since their introduction in the 1980s. Their remarkable glassy behavior makes them an essential toy model for exploring the liquid–glass transition, a longstanding puzzle in condensed matter physics. Over the past 20 years, KCMs have also gained significant attention in mathematics. Despite belonging to the well-established domain of interacting particle systems with stochastic dynamics, the presence of dynamical constraints gives rise to novel phenomena. These include anomalously long mixing times, aging effects, singularities in the dynamical large deviation function, dynamical heterogeneities, and atypical ergodicity-breaking transitions corresponding to the emergence of a large variety of amorphous structures