From micro to mesoscale models of viscous liquid dynamics

Understanding the mechanism by which liquids transform into glasses is of great experimental and fundamental importance. The goal is to determine the origin of the dynamic slowdown of liquids upon cooling. In this talk, I will present recent numerical developments which allow for the first time to investigate the slow dynamics of supercooled liquids close to the glass transition. I will describe the microscopic picture revealed by our computer simulations, and how this feeds recent efforts to develop new mesoscopic models for viscous dynamics. I will discuss the facilitated trap model as a simple mesoscale model and describe how it allows us to rationalize some aspects of slow dynamics.