Widespread concerns over the impact of human activity on the environment have resulted in
a desire to replace artificial functional materials with naturally derived alternatives. As such …

This is an extended version of my Nobel Lecture, delivered on December 8, 2021. I will
recall the genesis of the concept of multiple equilibria in natural sciences. I will then describe …

The Mpemba effect occurs when a hot system cools faster than an initially colder one, when
both are refrigerated in the same thermal reservoir. Using the custom-built supercomputer …

The spherical p-spin model is a fundamental model in statistical mechanics of a disordered
system with a random first-order transition. The dynamics of this model is interesting both for …

Cooling and heating faster a system is a crucial problem in science, technology, and
industry. Indeed, choosing the best thermal protocol to reach a desired temperature or …

Experiments on spin glasses can now make precise measurements of the exponent z (T)
governing the growth of glassy domains, while our computational capabilities allow us to …

Out-of-equilibrium relaxation processes show aging if they become slower as time passes.
Aging processes are ubiquitous and play a fundamental role in the physics of glasses and …

The correlation length ξ, a key quantity in glassy dynamics, can now be precisely measured
for spin glasses both in experiments and in simulations. However, known analysis methods …

Experiments featuring non-equilibrium glassy dynamics under temperature changes still
await interpretation. There is a widespread feeling that temperature chaos (an extreme …

We first reproduce on the Janus and Janus II computers a milestone experiment that
measures the spin-glass coherence length through the lowering of free-energy barriers …