Related papers: Unconventional elasticity in smectic-A elastomers
Chiral twisting of the molecular orientation within the layer of a smectic-A liquid crystal has been investigated using circular dichroism spectroscopy. The results indicate that a rotation of the layers away from the alignment direction is…
We elucidate the elastic behavior of a wormlike chain in 3D under compression and provide exact solutions for the experimentally accessible force-extension relation in terms of generalized spheroidal wave functions. In striking contrast to…
We construct a mean-field elastoplastic description of the dynamics of amorphous solids under arbitrary time-dependent perturbations, building on the work of Lin and Wyart [Phys. Rev. X 6, 011005 (2016)] for steady shear. Local stresses are…
The elastic properties of eta-Fe2C (eta carbide) have been determined from ab initio density functional theory (DFT) calculations using the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). The isotropic polycrystalline elastic modulus of eta-Fe2C…
We study a discrete model of an heterogeneous elastic line with internal disorder, submitted to thermal fluctuations. The monomers are connected through random springs with independent and identically distributed elastic constants drawn…
We investigate Isotropic - Nematic transition in liquid crystal elastomers employing non-Boltzmann Monte Carlo techniques. We consider a lattice model of a liquid elastomer and Selinger-Jeon-Ratna Hamiltonian which accounts for…
Recent experiments showed that the shear modulus of solid 4He stiffens in the same temperature range (below 200 mK) where mass decoupling and supersolidity have been inferred from torsional oscillator measurements. The two phenomena are…
The electric field applied perpendicularly to smectic layers breaks the rotational symmetry of the system. Consequently, the elastic energy associated with distortions induced by an edge dislocation diverges logarithmically with the size of…
Deformations of amorphous polymer networks prepared with significant concentrations of liquid crystalline mesogens have been recently reported to undergo mechanotropic phase transitions. Here, we report that these mechanotropic phase…
We demonstrate that plastic deformation in solids is associated with a dynamic transition that is reminiscent to the transition from a superconducting to a mixed phase in Type II superconductors. We report analytic calculations, extensive…
Many bent-core nematic liquid crystals exhibit unusual physical properties due to the presence of smectic clusters, known as "cybotactic" clusters in the nematic phase. Effect of these clusters on complex shear modulus ($G^*(\omega)$) of…
Using shear wave elastography, we measure the changes in the wave speed with the stress produced by a striated muscle during isometric voluntary contraction. To isolate the behaviour of an individual muscle from complementary or…
We study the uniaxial compressive behavior of disordered colloidal free-standing micropillars composed of a bidisperse mixture of 3 and 6 um polystyrene particles. Mechanical annealing of confined pillars enables variation of the packing…
Emergent crystals are periodic alignment of "emergent particles", i.e., localized collective behavior of atoms or their charges/spins/orbits. These novel states of matter, widely observed in various systems, may deform under mechanical…
We propose a scaling ansatz for the elastic energy of a system near the critical jamming transition in terms of three relevant fields: the compressive strain $\Delta \phi$ relative to the critical jammed state, the shear strain $\epsilon$,…
Fractal patterns are observed in computational mechanics of elastic-plastic transitions in two models of linear elastic/perfectly-plastic random heterogeneous materials: (1) a composite made of locally isotropic grains with weak random…
The response of a field-stabilized two-dimensional smectic to shear stress is discussed. Below a critical temperature the smectic film exhibits elastic response to an infinitesimal shear stress normal to the layering. At finite stresses…
Highly acurate numerical simulations are employed to highlight the subtle but important differences in the mechanical stability of perfect crystalline solids versus amorphous solids. We stress the difference between strain values at which…
An unresolved issue in the theory of liquid crystals is the molecular basis of the electroclinic effect in the smectic-A phase. Recent x-ray scattering experiments suggest that, in a class of siloxane-containing liquid crystals, an electric…
We study the elasticity, fluctuations and pinning of a putative spontaneous vortex solid in ferromagnetic superconductors. Using a rigorous thermodynamic argument, we show that in the idealized case of vanishing crystalline pinning…