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We model spontaneous cortical activity with a network of coupled spiking units, in which multiple spatio-temporal patterns are stored as dynamical attractors. We introduce an order parameter, which measures the overlap (similarity) between…
The dynamic fragmentation of residually stressed solids involves a complex interplay between stored elastic energy, stress wave propagation, and crack instabilities. In this work, we investigate the fracture mechanics of chemically…
Materials are often heterogeneous at various length scales, with variations in grain structure, defects, and composition which has a strong influence on the emergent macroscopic plastic behavior. In particular, heterogeneities lead to…
The dynamics and stability of brittle cracks are not yet fully understood. Here we use the Willis-Movchan 3D linear perturbation formalism [J. Mech. Phys. Solids {\bf 45}, 591 (1997)] to study the out-of-plane stability of planar crack…
We review the use of superconductors as a playground for the experimental study of front roughening and avalanches. Using the magneto-optical technique, the spatial distribution of the vortex density in the sample is monitored as a function…
We examine theoretically and numerically fast propagation of a tensile crack along unidimensional strips with periodically evolving toughness. In such dynamic fracture regimes, crack front waves form and transport front disturbances along…
We study the statistical properties of the yielding transition in model amorphous solids in the limit of slow, athermal deformation. Plastic flow occurs via alternating phases of elastic loading punctuated by rapid dissipative events in the…
In disordered elastic systems, driven by displacing a parabolic confining potential adiabatically slowly, all advance of the system is in bursts, termed avalanches. Avalanches have a finite extension in time, which is much smaller than the…
Strain rate sensitivity is a key feature of material deformation, whose importance is growing both because miniaturized components experience higher effective rates and because small scale simulations increasingly probe such conditions. As…
The relevant parameters at the microstructure scale that govern the macroscopic toughness of disordered brittle materials are investigated theoretically. We focus on planar crack propagation and describe the front evolution as the…
We study the minimum-energy configuration of a d-dimensional elastic interface in a random potential tied to a harmonic spring. As a function of the spring position, the center of mass of the interface changes in discrete jumps, also called…
The problem of dynamic symmetric branching of an initial single brittle crack propagating at a given speed under plane loading conditions is studied within a continuum mechanics approach. Griffith's energy criterion and the principle of…
Low-energy excitations play a key role in all condensed-matter systems, yet there is limited understanding of their nature in glasses, where they correspond to local rearrangements of groups of particles. Here we introduce an algorithm to…
We perform real-time measurements of the net contact area between two blocks of like material at the onset of frictional slip. We show that the process of interface detachment, which immediately precedes the inception of frictional sliding,…
A lattice of elastic Rayleigh rods organized in a parallelepiped geometry can be axially loaded up to an arbitrary amount without distortion and then be subject to incremental time-harmonic dynamic motion. At certain threshold levels of…
Recent theoretical advances offer an exact, first-principle theory of jamming criticality in infinite dimension as well as universal scaling relations between critical exponents in all dimensions. For packings of frictionless spheres near…
Combining high-speed photography with laser profilometry, we study the dynamics and the morphology of liquid-drop impact cratering in wet granular media---a ubiquitous phenomenon relevant to many important geological, agricultural, and…
In this thesis I discuss analytical approaches to disordered systems using field theory. Disordered systems are characterized by a random energy landscape due to heterogeneities, which remains fixed on the time scales of the phenomena…
Colliding high energy hadrons either produce new particles or scatter elastically with their quantum numbers conserved and no other particles produced. We consider the latter case here. Although inelastic processes dominate at high…
Under compressive stress, rock ``damage'' in the form of tensile microcracks is coupled to internal slip on microscopic interfaces, such as preexisting cracks and grain boundaries. In order to characterise the contribution of slip to the…