On the trap model description of glassy dynamics*

The description of activated dynamics of glassy systems in the multidimensional configurational space is a long-standing open problem. In this talk I will discuss about recent studies of the equilibrium and out-of equilibrium dynamics of a number of models with rough potential energy landscapes. These models provide examples of dynamics where typical relaxation channels go over finite potential energy barriers despite the presence of less-energy-demanding escaping paths in configurational space. This phenomenon is naturally expected to be relevant in the thermally activated regime of realistic models of glass-formers. The numerical and analytic results will show whether, and to what extent, due to this phenomenon the activated dynamics displayed by these models can be effectively described in terms of the fully solvable dynamics of thermally-activated systems like trap models.