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Several puzzling regularities concerning the low temperature excitations of glasses are quantitatively explained by quantizing domain wall motions of the random first order glass transition theory. The density of excitations agrees with…
Thermodynamics and kinetics are thought to be linked in glass transitions. The quantitative predictions of -relaxation activation barriers provided by the theory of glasses based on random first order transitions are compared with…
The relationship between spatially heterogeneous dynamics (SHD) and jamming is studied in a glass-forming binary Lennard-Jones system via molecular dynamics simulations. It has been suggested that the probability distribution of…
We present experimental wear data for polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) sliding on tile, sandpaper, and polished steel surfaces, as well as for soda-lime, borosilicate, and quartz glass sliding on sandpaper. The results are compared with a…
The low temperature heat capacity of amorphous materials reveals a low-frequency enhancement (boson peak) of the vibrational density of states, as compared with the Debye law. By measuring the low-temperature heat capacity of a Zr-based…
From understanding the sand on the beach to the foam on your beer, soft sphere simulations have been crucial to the study of the amorphous world around us. However, many of the materials we interact with on a daily basis aren't comprised of…
Fluidized granular media have a rich rheology: measuring shear stress $\sigma$ as a function of shear rate $\dot\gamma$, they exhibit Newtonian behavior $\sigma\sim\dot\gamma$ for low densities and shear rates, develop a yield stress for…
Glass-forming liquids exhibit a dramatic dynamical slowdown as the temperature is lowered. This can be attributed to relaxation proceeding via large structural rearrangements whose characteristic size increases as the system cools. These…
We develop a simple yet comprehensive nonlinear model to describe relaxation phenomena in amorphous glass-formers near the glass transition temperature. The model is based on the two-state, two-(time)scale (TS2) framework, and describes the…
If a porous media is being damaged by excessive stress, the elastic matrix at every infinitesimal volume separates into a 'solid' and a 'broken' component. The 'solid' part is the one that is capable of transferring stress, whereas the…
The nature of defects in amorphous materials, analogous to vacancies and dislocations in crystals, remains elusive. Here we explore their nature in a three-dimensional microscopic model glass-former which describes granular, colloidal,…
We discuss the linear and non-linear rheology of concentrated (sub)microscale emulsions, amorphous disordered solids composed of repulsive and deformable soft colloidal spheres. Based on recent results from simulation and theory, we derive…
The recent theoretical treatment of irreversible jumps between inherent states with a constant density in shear space is extended to a full theory, attributing the shear relaxation to structural Eshelby rearrangements involving the creation…
Simulations of the structure and dynamics of fluid films confined to a thickness of a few molecular diameters are described. Confining walls introduce layering and in-plane order in the adjacent fluid. The latter is essential to transfer of…
Many mean-field models have been introduced to describe the mechanical behavior of glassy materials. They often rely on averages performed over distributions of elements or states. We here underline that averaging is a more intricate…
We poorly understand the properties of amorphous systems at small length scales, where a continuous elastic description breaks down. This is apparent when one considers their vibrational and transport properties, or the way forces propagate…
Molecular dynamics simulations are carried out to investigate mechanical properties and porous structure of binary glasses subjected to steady shear. The model vitreous systems were prepared via thermal quench at constant volume to a…
We study strain localization in slow shear flow focusing on layered granular materials. A heretofore unknown effect is presented here. We show that shear zones are refracted at material interfaces in analogy with refraction of light beams…
When a liquid freezes, a change in the local atomic structure marks the transition to the crystal. When a liquid is cooled to form a glass, however, no noticeable structural change marks the glass transition. Indeed, characteristic features…
We report the simultaneous softening and compaction of a confined dense granular pack in acoustic resonance experiments. Elastic softening is manifested by a reduction of the shear-wave speed, as the wave amplitude increases beyond some…