Toward a microscopic understanding of the dynamics of simple glass-forming liquids

The dynamical arrest predicted by mode-coupling theory and the entropy crisis at the random first-order transition are both exact descriptions of simple glass-forming liquids, albeit only in abstract, infinite-dimensional systems. What survives of these features and what other processes come into play in three-dimensional glass formers are questions that remain largely unanswered. In this talk, I present our recent advances toward a microscopic understanding of the finite-dimensional echo of the infinite-dimensional transitions, and of some of the activated processes that affect the dynamical slowdown of simple yet realistic glass formers.