Related papers: Random solids and random solidification: What can …
When we lower the temperature of a liquid, at some point we meet a first order phase transition to the crystal. Yet, under certain conditions it is possible to keep the system in its metastable phase and to avoid crystallization. In this…
If quenched fast enough, a liquid is able to avoid crystallization and will remain in a metastable supercooled state down to the glass transition, with an important increase in viscosity upon further cooling. There are important differences…
The effect of finite temperature $T$ and finite strain rate $\dot\gamma$ on the statistical physics of plastic deformations in amorphous solids made of $N$ particles is investigated. We recognize three regimes of temperature where the…
Dense assemblies of self-propelled particles undergo a nonequilibrium form of glassy dynamics. Physical intuition suggests that increasing departure from equilibrium due to active forces fluidifies a glassy system. We falsify this belief by…
From hydrogels and plastics to liquid crystals, soft solids cover a wide array of synthetic and biological materials that play key enabling roles in advanced technologies such as 3D printing, soft robotics, wearable electronics,…
Concentrated colloidal suspensions are a well-tested model system which has a glass transition. Colloids are suspensions of small solid particles in a liquid, and exhibit glassy behavior when the particle concentration is high; the…
Inhomogeneous flows and shear banding are of interest for a range of applications but have been eluding a comprehensive theoretical understanding, mostly due to the lack of a framework comparable to equilibrium statistical mechanics. Here…
We use computer simulations to study the glass transition of dense fluids made of polydisperse, repulsive spheres. For hard particles, we vary the volume fraction, phi, and use compressible particles to explore finite temperatures, T>0. In…
While classical theory of phase transitions deals with systems where shape variation is energetically neutral, the account of rigidity can lead to the emergence of new thermodynamic features. One of them is a special type of critical points…
Fluid phase equilibrium depends on the external constraints imposed on a system. In a closed system with fixed volume, depending on the average density, a vapor bubble may be stable, metastable, or unstable, with respect to the homogeneous…
Under many circumstances many soft and hard materials are present in a puzzling wealth of non-equilibrium amorphous states, whose properties are not stationary and depend on preparation. They are often summarized in unconventional "phase…
We study stochastic particle systems with stationary product measures that exhibit a condensation transition due to particle interactions or spatial inhomogeneities. We review previous work on the stationary behaviour and put it in the…
We study heterogeneities in a binary Lennard-Jones system below the glass transition using molecular dynamics simulations. We identify mobile and immobile particles and measure their distribution of vibrational amplitudes. For temperatures…
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…
The role of porous structure and glass density in response to compressive deformation of amorphous materials is investigated via molecular dynamics simulations. The disordered, porous structures were prepared by quenching a high-temperature…
The routine transformation of a liquid, as it is cooled rapidly, resulting in glass formation, is remarkably complex. A theoretical explanation of the dynamics associated with this process has remained one of the major unsolved problems in…
The simultaneous effect of both disorder and crystal-lattice pinning on the equilibrium behavior of oriented elastic objects is studied using scaling arguments and a functional renormalization group technique. Our analysis applies to…
We examine a two-dimensional system of sterically repulsive interacting disks where each particle runs in a random direction. This system is equivalent to a run-and-tumble dynamics system in the limit where the run time is infinite. At low…
The paper is devoted to recent advances in stochastic modeling of anomalous kinetic processes observed in dielectric materials which are prominent examples of disordered (complex) systems. Theoretical studies of dynamical properties of…
Recent experiments and simulations of amorphous solids plastically deformed by oscillatory drive have foundsurprising behavior - for small strain amplitudes the dynamics can be reversible, which is contrary to the usual notion of plasticity…