Related papers: Origin of reversible and irreversible atomic-scale…
We explain the relation between certain random tiling models and interacting particle systems belonging to the anisotropic KPZ (Kardar-Parisi-Zhang) universality class in 2+1-dimensions. The link between these two \emph{a priori} disjoint…
Using a distinguishable-particle lattice model based on void-induced dynamics, we successfully reproduce the well-known linear relation between heat capacity and temperature at very low temperatures. The heat capacity is dominated by…
Upon mechanical loading, granular materials yield and undergo plastic deformation. The nature of plastic deformation is essential for the development of the macroscopic constitutive models and the understanding of shear band formation.…
We investigate the onset of irreversibility in a dense granular medium subjected to cyclic shear in a split-bottom geometry. To probe the micro and mesoscale we image bead trajectories in 3D throughout a series of shear strain oscillations.…
Understanding and controlling physical aging, i.e. the spontaneous temporal evolution of out-of-equilibrium systems, represents one of the greatest tasks in material science. Recent studies have revealed the existence of a complex atomic…
Glass films created by vapor-depositing molecules onto a substrate can exhibit properties similar to those of ordinary glasses aged for thousands of years. It is believed that enhanced surface mobility is the mechanism that allows vapor…
Self-assembly of chiral particles with an L-shape is explored by Monte-Carlo computer simulations in two spatial dimensions. For sufficiently high packing densities in confinement, a carpet-like texture emerges due to the interlocking of…
We investigate the quality of structural models generated by the Reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) method in a typical application to amorphous systems. To this end we calculate surrogate diffraction data from a Li2O-SiO2 molecular dynamics (MD)…
Here we introduce a variation of the trap model of glasses based on softness, a local structural variable identified by machine learning, in supercooled liquids. Softness is a particle-based quantity that reflects the local structural…
A mesoscopic model for shear plasticity of amorphous materials in two dimensions is introduced, and studied through numerical simulations in order to elucidate the macroscopic (large scale) mechanical behavior. Plastic deformation is…
The low-temperature quasi-universal behavior of amorphous solids has been attributed to the existence of spatially-localized tunneling defects found in the low-energy regions of the potential energy landscape. Computational models of…
Understanding the fundamental mechanisms behind plastic instabilities and shear band formation in amorphous media under applied deformation remains a long-standing challenge. Leveraging on the mathematical concept of topology, we revisit…
We investigate through computational simulations with a pore network model the formation of patterns caused by erosion-deposition mechanisms. In this model, the geometry of the pore space changes dynamically as a consequence of the coupling…
Relaxation processes are crucial in understanding the structural rearrangements of liquids and amorphous materials. However, the overarching principle that governs these processes across vastly different materials remains an open question.…
Recent studies point out far-reaching connections between the topological characteristics of structural glasses and their material properties, paralleling results in quantum physics that highlight the relevance of the nature of the…
A phenomenon recently coined as ``overaging'' implies a slowdown in the collective (slow) relaxation modes of a glass when a transient shear strain is imposed. We are able to reproduce this behavior in simulations of a supercooled polymer…
How can we build agents that keep learning from experience, quickly and efficiently, after their initial training? Here we take inspiration from the main mechanism of learning in biological brains: synaptic plasticity, carefully tuned by…
We measure the local yield stress, at the scale of small atomic regions, in a deeply quenched two-dimensional glass model undergoing shear banding in response to athermal quasistatic (AQS) deformation. We find that the occurrence of…
Materials typically fail under complex stress states, essentially involving dilatational (volumetric) components that eventually lead to material decohesion/separation. It is therefore important to understand dilatational irreversible…
Spontaneous onset of a low temperature topologically ordered phase in a 2-dimensional (2D) lattice model of uniaxial liquid crystal (LC) was debated extensively pointing to a suspected underlying mechanism affecting the RG flow near the…