Related papers: A New Criterion for Crack Formation in Disordered …
We propose a new type of morphological instability in the diffusion-limited growth of faceted crystals from the vapor phase that can explain the formation of thin ice plates at temperatures near -15 C. The instability appears when the…
We analyze the fluctuations in particle positions and inter-particle forces in disordered jammed crystals in the limit of weak disorder. We demonstrate that such athermal systems are fundamentally different from their thermal counterparts,…
Lattice defects are inevitably present in two-dimensional materials, with direct implications on their physical and chemical properties. We show that the formation energy of a lattice defect in buckled two-dimensional crystals is not…
Due to their microstructure, quasi brittle materials present rough cracks. Under sliding of the crack lips, this roughness involves in one hand induced opening and in the other hand some apparent plasticity which is due to the interlocking…
The status quo in our understanding of defect formation during a rapid transition into the broken symmetry state in condensed matter and cosmology is discussed. An observation of vortex nucleation in neutron absorption experiments in…
The nucleation of crystals from the liquid melt is often characterized by a competition between different crystalline structures or polymorphs, and can result in nuclei with heterogeneous compositions. These mixed-phase nuclei can display…
We consider simulations of Wigner crystals interacting with random quenched disorder in the presence of thermal fluctuations. When quenched disorder is absent, there is a well defined melting temperature determined by the proliferation of…
Temperature chaos is an extreme sensitivity of the equilibrium state to a change of temperature. It arises in several disordered systems that are described by the so called scaling theory of spin glasses, while it seems to be absent in mean…
Crystallization is a fundamental process in materials science, providing the primary route for the realization of a wide range of new materials. Crystallization rates are also considered to be useful probes of glass-forming ability. At the…
By performing extensive simulations with unprecedentedly large system sizes, we unveil how rigidity influences the fracture of disordered materials. We observe the largest damage in networks with connectivity close to the isostatic point…
Impact craters exist on various solid objects in the planetary system. A simplified analogy of the process of their formation is here analyzed by standard solid state physics and the so called dynamic quantized fracture mechanics. An…
This contribution presents a review of our present theoretical as well as experimental knowledge of different fluctuation observables relevant to nuclear multifragmentation. The possible connection between the presence of a fluctuation peak…
Formation and decay of rod-like and slab-like nuclei, as may be encountered in the outer parts of neutron stars, are examined within a zero-temperature stability analysis with respect to perturbations inducing fission and proton clustering.…
We study the dynamical formation of disoriented chiral condensates in very high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions using Bjorken hydrodynamics and relativistic nucleation theory. It is the dynamics of the first order confinement phase…
When a crack interacts with material heterogeneities, its front distorts and adopts complex tortuous configurations that are reminiscent of the energy barriers encountered during crack propagation. As such, the study of crack front…
A deposited drop of bovine serum albumin salt solution experiences both gelation and fracturation during evaporation. The cracks appearing at the edge of the gelling drop are regularly spaced, due to the competition between the…
A droplet of surfactant spreading on an ultrasoft ($E \lesssim 100$ Pa) gel substrate will produce capillary fractures at the gel surface; these fractures originate at the contact-line and propagate outwards in a starburst pattern. There is…
We perform fracture experiments on nanoscale phase separated glasses and measure crack surface roughness by atomic force microscopy. The ability of tuning the phase domain size by thermal treatment allows us to test thoroughly the…
In this note we study the accretion disc that arises in hypercritical accretion of $\dot M\sim 10^8 M_{\rm Edd}$ onto a neutron star while it is in common envelope evolution with a massive companion. In order to raise the temperature high…
We investigate the initiation of cracks in vertically freestanding water-saturated colloidal pillars constructed using a direct-write technique. Paradoxically, the cracks form during drying at the free end, far from the substrate, where the…