Simulation of glasses and glass-forming liquids after two decades: some perspectives

We comment on the current status of molecular dynamics and ion dynamics computer simulation studies with respect to advances in understanding of glass formation from viscous liquids, and suggest a classification of current glass and viscous liquid problems in terms of their accessibility to study by computer simulation methods, giving examples in each class. In class C are the problems which are accessible with modest computing facilities and one case, in which the fragility of alternative polymorphic forms of vitreous SiO₂ is assessed, is treated in some detail.