Dynamics of supercooled liquids and understanding the glass transition

The self-consistent mode coupling theory of glass transition is briefly reviewed. The existance of a temperature T_c, higher than the usual calorimetric glass transition temperature, across which the dynamics of the fluid becomes quite different are indicated through different experimental results. Above T_c the viscosity tends to diverge with a power law while for lower temperature this sharp transition is cutoff. Such changes in the transport properties can be understood from the self-consistent mode coupling theory. The relaxation functions predicted by the mode-coupling theory over different time scales are indicated. The models with proper wave-vector dependence are also discussed.