SUPERCOOLED LIQUIDS - A NEW LOOK AT SELECTED RELAXATION PHENOMENA

Along with the presentation of the results of some new light-scattering measurements, other observations concerning supercooled liquids are interpreted. The following are examined: (1) the bifurcation of rotational relaxation in supercooled liquids into alpha- and beta-processes, (2) the residual light-scattering linewidths (near and below T(g)) of the Brillouin and shear-wave lines, (3) the fact that the viscoelastic invariant, 2(-1)-mu-J(r)(0)(tau-m/tau-r)-beta, is close to unity for many supercooled liquids (where J(r)(omega) is the retardational compliance, mu the shear modulus, tau-m the Maxwell relaxation time, and tau-r the relaxation time and beta the exponent used in a fit of J(r)(omega) to a Cole-Davidson function).