Related papers: Topological elasticity of flexible structures

Topological mechanics can realize soft modes in mechanical metamaterials in which the number of degrees of freedom for particle motion is finely balanced by the constraints provided by interparticle interactions. However, solid objects are…

We propose and verify experimentally a new concept for achieving strong nonlinear coupling between the electromagnetic and elastic properties in metamaterials. This coupling is provided through a novel degree of freedom in metamaterial…

Topological metamaterials have invaded the mechanical world, demonstrating acoustic cloaking and waveguiding at finite frequencies and variable, tunable elastic response at zero frequency. Zero frequency topological states have previously…

Concepts from quantum topological states of matter have been extensively utilized in the past decade in creating mechanical metamaterials with topologically protected features, such as one-way edge states and topologically polarized…

Defects, and in particular topological defects, are architectural motifs that play a crucial role in natural materials. Here we provide a systematic strategy to introduce such defects in mechanical metamaterials. We first present…

Many properties of photonic structures rely on band topology characterized by the integer invariants that can change during the topological transitions and give rise to the disorder-robust topological edge, corner, or interface states.…

Topology transcends boundaries that conventionally delineate physical, biological and engineering sciences. Our ability to mathematically describe topology, combined with our access to precision tracking and manipulation approaches, has…

Topological lattices have recently generated a great deal of interest based on the unique mechanical properties rooted in their topological polarization, including the ability to support localized modes at certain floppy edges. The study of…

Growth processes in many living organisms create thin, soft materials with an intrinsically hyperbolic geometry. These objects support novel types of mesoscopic defects - discontinuity lines for the second derivative and branch points -…

Understanding the relationship between the microscopic structure and topology of a material and its macroscopic properties is a fundamental challenge across a wide range of systems. Here, we investigate the viscoelasticity of DNA nanostar…

Topological mechanical metamaterials are artificial structures whose unusual properties are protected very much like their electronic and optical counterparts. Here, we present an experimental and theoretical study of an active metamaterial…

This study examines the mechanical behavior of a novel class of mechanical metamaterials alternating pentamode lattices and stiffening plates. The unit cell of such lattices consists of a sub-lattice of the face cubic-centered unit cell…

The ability to design and fabricate materials with tailored mechanical properties, combined with immunity to damage, is a frontier of materials engineering. For example, materials which are characterized by elastic properties that depend on…

Although topological mechanical metamaterials have been extensively studied from a theoretical perspective, their experimental characterization has been lagging. To address this shortcoming, we present a systematic laser-assisted…

Topological dislocations in otherwise periodic lattices represent global structural defects that, nevertheless, typically leave the lattice periodicity intact far from the dislocation. Such dislocations arise in diverse physical systems…

In this article, we unravel an intimate relationship between two seemingly unrelated concepts: elasticity, that defines the local relations between stress and strain of deformable bodies, and topology that classifies their global shape.…

The classification of materials into insulators and conductors has been shaken up by the discovery of topological insulators that conduct robustly at the edge but not in the bulk. In mechanics, designating a material as insulating or…

Open cellular solids usually possess random microstructures that may contain a characteristic length scale, such as the cell size. This gives rise to size dependent mechanical properties where large systems behave differently from small…

Robustness against small perturbations is a crucial feature of topological properties. This robustness is both a source of theoretical interest and a drive for technological applications, but presents a challenge when looking for new…

We develop a continuum theory to model low energy excitations of a generic four-band time reversal invariant electronic system with boundaries. We propose a variational energy functional for the wavefunctions which allows us derive natural…