Related papers: Random quench predicts universal properties of amo…
The slow flow of amorphous solids exhibits striking heterogeneities: swift localised particle rearrangements take place in the midst of a more or less homogeneously deforming medium. Recently, experimental as well as numerical work has…
We show that, in the athermal quasi-static deformation of amorphous materials, the onset of failure is accompanied by universal scalings associated with a \emph{divergence} of elastic constants. A normal mode analysis of the non-affine…
The pinning of an inhomogeneous elastic medium by a disordered substrate is studied analytically and numerically. The static and dynamic properties of a $D$-dimensional system are shown to be equivalent to those of the well known problem of…
In this work the linear elastic properties of materials containing spherical voids are calculated and compared using finite element simulations. The focus is on homogeneous solid materials with spherical, empty voids of equal size. The…
Amorphous solids relax via slow molecular rearrangement induced by thermal fluctuations or applied stress. Although microscopic structural signatures predicting these structural relaxations have long been sought, a physically motivated…
The phonon spectra of solids, described through the measurable vibrational density of states (VDOS), provide a wealth of information about the underlying atomic structure and bonding, and they determine fundamental macroscopic properties…
We show using computer simulations and mean field theory that a system of particles in two dimensions, when confined laterally by a pair of parallel hard walls within a quasi one dimensional channel, possesses several anomalous structural…
The plasticity of amorphous solids undergoing shear is characterized by quasi-localized rearrangements of particles. While many models of plasticity exist, the precise relationship between plastic dynamics and the structure of a particle's…
Earlier obtained results on mechanical analogies of physical fields and particles are reviewed. The approach rests on the concept of the substratum - a mechanical medium, which occupies all the space and serves as a seat to support the…
One of the essential questions in the area of granular matter is, how to obtain macroscopic tensorial quantities like stress and strain from ``microscopic'' quantities like the contact forces in a granular assembly. Different averaging…
Understanding the non-equilibrium dynamics of extended quantum systems after the trigger of a sudden, global perturbation (quench) represents a daunting challenge, especially in the presence of interactions. The main difficulties stem from…
From the perspective of physical properties, the cell membrane is an exotic two-dimensional material that has a dual nature: it exhibits characteristics of fluids, i.e., lipid molecules show lateral diffusion, while also demonstrating…
We introduce "anamorphic" cosmology, an approach for explaining the smoothness and flatness of the universe on large scales and the generation of a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of adiabatic density perturbations. The defining feature is…
With the decline of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics and the recent experiments indicating that quantum mechanics does actually embody 'objective reality', one might ask if a 'mechanical', conceptual model for quantum…
Acoustic vibrations of nanoparticles made of materials with anisotropic elasticity and nanoparticles with non-spherical shapes are theoretically investigated using a homogeneous continuum model. Cubic, hexagonal and tetragonal symmetries of…
The behavior of shear-oscillated amorphous materials is studied using a coarse-grained model. Samples are prepared at different degrees of annealing and then subject to athermal and quasistatic oscillatory deformations at various fixed…
Amorphous solids manifest puzzling effects of mysterious degrees of freedom that give rise to a heat capacity and phonon scattering in great excess over what would be expected for a solid that has a unique vibrational ground state. Of…
Self-similar, spherically symmetric cosmological models with a perfect fluid and a scalar field with an exponential potential are investigated. New variables are defined which lead to a compact state space, and dynamical systems methods are…
The emergence of large-scale magnetic fields observed in the diffuse interstellar medium is explained by a turbulent dynamo. The underlying transport coefficients have previously been extracted from numerical simulations. So far, this was…
We examine the state of statistical equilibrium attained by a uniformly forced condensable substance subjected to advection in a periodic domain. In particular, we examine the probability density function (\pdf{}) of the condensable…