A model for the generic alpha relaxation in viscous liquids

Dielectric measurements on molecular liquids just above the glass transition indicate that alpha relaxation is characterized by a generic high-frequency loss varying as one over square root of frequency, whereas deviations from this come from one or more low-lying beta processes [Olsen et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 86 (2001) 1271]. Assuming that long-wavelength fluctuations dominate the dynamics, a model for the dielectric alpha relaxation based on the simplest coupling between the density and dipole density fields is proposed here. The model, which is solved in second-order perturbation theory in the Gaussian approximation, reproduces the generic features of alpha relaxation.