Entropy crisis at zero temperature in two dimensions*

Long-wavelength translational fluctuations endow two-dimensional glass-forming liquids with dynamical properties markedly different from those of their higher-dimensional counterparts. These long-wavelength fluctuations may also affect the nature of the Kauzmann entropy crisis associated with the rarefaction of metastable states in low dimensions. States with a sufficiently low entropy to discern the role of dimension, however, have thus far been inaccessible to both simulations and experiments. Here, we employ a swap Monte Carlo algorithm that allows the thermalization of polydisperse soft and hard spheres beyond the temperature regime traditionally accessible. By measuring both the configurational entropy and point-to-set correlations we determine that the entropy crisis takes place at finite temperature in three-dimensional systems but at zero temperature in two dimensions. Our results thus suggest that two- and three-dimensional glass formers fundamentally differ and further reinforce the importance of the entropy crisis in all dimensions.