Vibrational models for the Boson peak

Abstract We investigate different vibrational model systems with randomly distributed spring constants that characterize the bonds between nearest-neighbor particles, and calculate numerically the density of states and the specific heat of these systems. Recently, a model system, where the spring constants f were chosen from a distribution P(f)∝1/f above a cut-off value fmin>0 has been shown to reproduce several important features of the Boson peak in glasses. Here, we compare this model to a model system with a binary distribution of spring constants.