Related papers: Soft random solids and their heterogeneous elastic…
Theoretical studies of nearly spherical vesicles and microemulsion droplets, that present typical examples for thermally-excited systems that are subject to constraints, are reviewed. We consider the shape fluctuations of such systems…
Soft Glassy Materials (SGM) consist in dense amorphous assemblies of colloidal particles of multiple shapes, elasticity, and interactions, which confer upon them solid-like properties at rest. They are ubiquitously encountered in modern…
The importance of mesoscale fluctuations in flowing amorphous materials is widely accepted, without a clear understanding of their role. We propose a mean-field elastoplastic model that admits both stress and strain-rate fluctuations, and…
Solid-like behavior at low energies and long distances is usually associated with the spontaneous breaking of spatial translations at microscopic scales, as in the case of a lattice of atoms. We exhibit three quantum field theories that are…
We use an elastic model to explore faceting of solid-wall vesicles with elastic heterogeneities. We show that faceting occurs in regions where the vesicle wall is softer, such as areas of reduced wall thicknesses or concentrated in…
We use energetic considerations to deduce the form of a previously uncertain coupling term in the shear-transformation-zone (STZ) theory of plastic deformation in amorphous solids. As in the earlier versions of the STZ theory, the onset of…
The macroscopic friction of particulate materials often weakens as the flow rate is increased, leading to potentially disastrous intermittent phenomena including earthquakes and landslides. We theoretically and numerically study this…
Fluctuating hydrodynamics is used to describe the total energy fluctuations of a freely evolving gas of inelastic hard spheres near the threshold of the clustering instability. They are shown to be governed by vorticity fluctuations only,…
Soft composite solids are made of inclusions dispersed within soft matrices. They are ubiquitous in nature and form the basis of many biological tissues. In the field of materials science, synthetic soft composites are promising candidates…
Recently, a theoretical framework known as {\it ballistic macroscopic fluctuation theory} has been developed to study large-scale fluctuations and correlations in many-body systems exhibiting ballistic transport. In this paper, we review…
We study the shear induced fluidization of amorphous solids subjected to external loading by investigating the relaxation dynamics of the deformed states using computer simulation. A simple shear deformation is employed at constant rate to…
We review a recently proposed theory of random packings. We describe the volume fluctuations in jammed matter through a volume function, amenable to analytical and numerical calculations. We combine an extended statistical mechanics…
Two classes of non-linear elastic materials are derived via two-dimensional homogenization. These materials are equivalent to a periodic grid of axially-deformable and axially-preloaded structural elements, subject to incremental…
Recent developments in topological mechanics have demonstrated the ability of Maxwell lattices to effectively focus stress along domain walls between differently polarized domains. The focusing ability can be exploited to protect the…
Domain walls in magnets, vortex lattices in superconductors, contact lines at depinning, and many other systems can be modelled as an elastic system subject to quenched disorder. Its field theory possesses a well-controlled perturbative…
Surface tension tends to minimize the area of interfaces between pieces of matter in different thermodynamic phases, be they in the solid or the liquid state. This can be relevant for the macroscopic shape of very soft solids, and lead to a…
A theory of vibrational excitations based on power-law spatial correlations in the elastic constants (or equivalently in the internal stress) is derived, in order to determine the vibrational density of states $D(\omega)$ of disordered…
Supercooled liquids exhibit spatial heterogeneity in the dynamics of their fluctuating atomic arrangements. The length and time scales of the heterogeneous dynamics are central to the glass transition and influence nucleation and growth of…
We explore the dynamical response of the free surface of an ultra-soft solid driven by a localized moving pressure disturbance. Experiments reveal a steady V-shaped wake analogous to a surface Mach wedge. A simple geometric argument…
We study the relation between short-time vibrational modes and long-time relaxational dynamics in a kinetically constrained lattice gas with harmonic interactions between neighbouring particles. We find a correlation between the location of…