Kovacs effect in a model for a fragile glass

The Kovacs protocol, based on the temperature shift experiment originally conceived by A. J. Kovacs for glassy polymers, is implemented in an exactly solvable dynamical model. This model is characterized by interacting fast and slow modes represented, respectively, by spherical spins and harmonic oscillator variables. Due to this fundamental property, the model reproduces the characteristic nonmonotonic evolution known as the "Kovacs effect," observed in polymers, spin glasses, granular materials, and molecular liquid models, when similar experimental protocols are implemented.