Collective nature of the boson peak and universal transboson dynamics of glasses -: art. no. 245508

Using probe molecules with resonant nuclei and nuclear inelastic scattering, we are able to measure the density of states exclusively for collective motions with a correlation length of more than similar to20 Angstrom. Such spectra exhibit an excess of low-energy modes (boson peak). This peak behaves in the same way as that observed by conventional methods. This shows that a significant part of the modes constituting the boson peak is of collective character. At energies above the boson peak, the reduced density of states of the collective motions universally exhibits an exponential decrease.