Related papers: Soft random solids and their heterogeneous elastic…
Spatial heterogeneity in the elastic properties of soft random solids is investigated via a two-pronged approach. First, a nonlocal phenomenological model for the elastic free energy is examined. This features a quenched random kernel,…
In many interesting physical settings, such as the vulcanization of rubber, the introduction of permanent random constraints between the constituents of a homogeneous fluid can cause a phase transition to a random solid state. In this…
Goldstone modes in the amorphous solid state, resulting from the spontaneous breaking of translational symmetry due to random localisation of particles, are discussed. Starting from a microscopic model with quenched disorder, the broken…
Signatures of the vulcanization transition--amorphous solidification induced by the random crosslinking of macromolecules--include the random localization of a fraction of the particles and the emergence of a nonzero static shear modulus. A…
Amorphous solids display numerous universal features in their mechanics, structure, and response. Current models assume heterogeneity in mesoscale elastic properties, but require fine-tuning in order to quantitatively explain vibrational…
Liquid crystal elastomers realize a fascinating new form of soft matter that is a composite of a conventional crosslinked polymer gel (rubber) and a liquid crystal. These {\em solid} liquid crystal amalgams, quite similarly to their…
Realistic fluid-solid interaction potentials are essential in description of confined fluids especially in the case of geometric heterogeneous surfaces. Correlated random field is considered as a model of random surface with high geometric…
The equilibrium amorphous solid state -- formed, e.g., by adequately randomly crosslinking the constituents of a macromolecular fluid -- is a heterogeneous state characterized by a universal distribution of particle localization lengths.…
Randomly crosslinked macromolecules undergo a liquid-to-amorphous solid phase transition at a critical crosslink concentration. This transition has two main signatures: the random localization of a fraction of the monomers and the emergence…
Candidates for random network media include, e.g., systems consisting of long, flexible macromolecules cross-linked (i.e., permanently bonded) together at random to form the network. Owing to the random architecture, the characteristics of…
Mutual information between local stress and local non-affine deformation is proposed as a collective field variable quantifying the {\em local softness} of soft materials. The liquid-solid transition in a simple liquid is considered as a…
Deformations of conventional solids are described via elasticity, a classical field theory whose form is constrained by translational and rotational symmetries. However, flexible metamaterials often contain an additional approximate…
We test a hypothesis for the origin of dynamical heterogeneity in slowly relaxing systems, namely that it emerges from soft (Goldstone) modes associated with a broken continuous symmetry under time reparametrizations. We do this by…
In sufficiently high spatial dimensions, the formation of the amorphous (i.e. random) solid state of matter, e.g., upon sufficent crosslinking of a macromolecular fluid, involves particle localization and, concommitantly, the spontaneous…
In complex crystals close to melting or at finite temperatures, different types of defects are ubiquitous and their role becomes relevant in the mechanical response of these solids. Conventional elasticity theory fails to provide a…
The mechanical response of naturally abundant amorphous solids such as gels, jammed grains, and biological tissues are not described by the conventional paradigm of broken symmetry that defines crystalline elasticity. In contrast, the…
A rich variety of amorphous solids are found in nature and technology, including ones formed via the vulcanization of long, flexible molecules. A special class -- those featuring a wide gap between the long timescales over which constraints…
Mechanical deformation of amorphous solids can be described as consisting of an elastic part in which the stress increases linearly with strain, up to a yield point at which the solid either fractures or starts deforming plastically. It is…
We provide a theoretical description of dynamical heterogeneities in glass-forming liquids, based on the premise that relaxation occurs via local rearrangements coupled by elasticity. In our framework, the growth of the dynamical…
In crystals, molecules thermally vibrate around the periodic lattice sites. Vibrational motions are well understood in terms of phonons, which carry heat and control heat transport. The situation is notably different in disordered solids,…