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arXiv · 2511.16791

A Constraint-Modulated Rate Law for Glass-Forming Systems: Viscosity Evidence and Dielectric Transfer in Salol

Debra S. Gavant·Christian E. Precker
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Abstract

The viscosity of a glass-forming liquid can increase by more than 14 decades as structural mobility diminishes upon cooling. Continuous Present Actualization (CPA) treats physical change as an ongoing process under the physical conditions currently in force. CPA plus constraint (CPA+C) tests the material hypothesis that relational constraints modulate the observable rate of structural reconfiguration. The bounded function $C(T)$ supplies an operational temperature modulation for this proposed influence. The five-parameter law is compared with the VFT, MYEGA, and Avramov--Milchev equations using source-verified data. For 35 published salol viscosity symbols spanning 14.15 decades, CPA+C is favored over the nearest comparator by 47.72 Akaike information criterion (AIC) units and reduces the leave-one-symbol-out root-mean-square prediction error from 0.398 to 0.207. It is selected in all 1,000 symbol-level bootstrap resamples under AIC, its small-sample correction (AICc), and the Bayesian information criterion (BIC). For 60 source-verified B$_2$O$_3$ viscosity measurements, CPA+C has a 57.39-unit AIC advantage over the nearest comparator. Salol provides the prospectively identified cross-observable test. The viscosity fit fixes both temperature coordinates and the complete temperature dependence of the viscosity-derived modulation before the dielectric comparison; only dielectric-specific coefficients are fitted. This fixed-geometry model improves on a denominator-matched control by 16.32 AIC units, with AIC preference across all 1,000 propagated viscosity geometries. The viscosity-derived modulation therefore retains predictive information for molecular reorientation in the same liquid. Together, the salol and B$_2$O$_3$ viscosity results and the salol transfer establish a reproducible constraint-modulated rate signature consistent with progressive narrowing of configurational access.

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Debra S. Gavant, Christian E. Precker. 2026-09-08. A Constraint-Modulated Rate Law for Glass-Forming Systems: Viscosity Evidence and Dielectric Transfer in Salol. https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.16791

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