The shear modulus of liquids

According to the interstitialcy model of condensed matter states, liquids are crystals containing a few percent of self-interstitials in thermal equilibrium. Glasses are frozen liquids. The model is expressed in terms of the properties of the shear modulus, which decreases exponentially with the interstitial concentration and temperature in the liquid state, and can be nearly as large as the crystalline value in the supercooled liquid near the glass temperature. Available experimental data support the model predictions, showing that the shear modulus plays a central role in the description of thermodynamic and kinetic properties of liquids and glasses.