Ordering processes in some disordered systems
Modern development of the low—temperature adiabatic calorimeter mekes it possible to detect slight spontaneous temperature changes due to freezing of some of the degrees of freedom of a system. Measurements of the rate of the temperature drift as well as the residual entropy of the system are used for thermal characterization of the non-equilibrium nature of the state of the system. The glassy states observed in this way are classified according to the type of disorder that is brought into the nonequilibrium state and to the stability of the phase that produces the glassy state. A phase transition observed recently in hexagonal ice crystals is discussed with respect to its kinetic features as well as its historical background. An important difference between the glassy states realized in the metastable and the stable phases is discussed from the view-point of Kauzmann's paradox.