Space-time thermodynamics of the glass transition

We consider the probability distribution for the fluctuations in the dynamical action of glass forming materials. We argue that the so-called glass transition is a manifestation of low action tails in these distributions where the entropy of trajectory space is sub-extensive in time. These low action tails are a consequence of dynamic heterogeneity and an indication of phase coexistence in trajectory space. The glass transition, where the system falls out of equilibrium, is then an order-disorder phenomenon in space-time occurring at a temperature Tg which is a weak function of measurement time. We illustrate our perspective ideas with facilitated lattice models, and note how these ideas apply more generally