Scaling Description of Creep Flow in Amorphous Solids.

Amorphous solids such as coffee foam, toothpaste, or mayonnaise display a transient creep flow when a stress Σ is suddenly imposed. The associated strain rate is commonly found to decay in time as γ[over ˙]∼t^{-ν}, followed either by arrest or by a sudden fluidization. Various empirical laws have been suggested for the creep exponent ν and fluidization time τ_{f} in experimental and numerical studies. Here, we postulate that plastic flow is governed by the difference between Σ and the transient yield stress Σ_{t}(γ) that characterizes the stability of configurations visited by the system at strain γ. Assuming the analyticity of Σ_{t}(γ) allows us to predict ν and asymptotic behaviors of τ_{f} in terms of properties of stationary flows. We test successfully our predictions using elastoplastic models and published experimental results.

Mean-field description for the architecture of low-energy excitations in glasses.

In amorphous materials, groups of particles can rearrange locally into a new stable configuration. Such elementary excitations are key as they determine the response to external stresses, as well as to thermal and quantum fluctuations. Yet, understanding what controls their geometry remains a challenge. Here we build a scaling description of the geometry and energy of low-energy excitations in terms of the distance to an instability, as predicted, for instance, at the dynamical transition in mean-field approaches of supercooled liquids. We successfully test our predictions in ultrastable computer glasses, with a gapped spectrum and an ungapped (regular) spectrum. Overall, our approach explains why excitations become less extended, with a higher energy and displacement scale upon cooling.

Thermally activated flow in models of amorphous solids.

Amorphous solids yield at a critical value Σ_{c} of the imposed stress Σ through a dynamical phase transition. While sharp in athermal systems, the presence of thermal fluctuations leads to the rounding of the transition and thermally activated flow even below Σ_{c}. Here we study the steady-state thermal flow of amorphous solids using a mesoscopic elastoplastic model. In the Hébraud-Lequex (HL) model we provide an analytical solution of the thermally activated flow at low temperature. We then propose a general scaling law that also describes the transition rounding. Finally, we find that the scaling law holds in numerical simulations of the HL model, a two-dimensional (2D) elastoplastic model, and previously published molecular dynamics simulations of 2D Lennard-Jones glass.

Thermal origin of quasilocalized excitations in glasses.

Key aspects of glasses are controlled by the presence of excitations in which a group of particles can rearrange. Surprisingly, recent observations indicate that their density is dramatically reduced and their size decreases as the temperature of the supercooled liquid is lowered. Some theories predict these excitations to cause a gap in the spectrum of quasilocalized modes of the Hessian that grows upon cooling, while others predict a pseudogap D_{L}(ω)∼ω^{α}. To unify these views and observations, we generate glassy configurations of controlled gap magnitude ω_{c} at temperature T=0, using so-called breathing particles, and study how such gapped states respond to thermal fluctuations. We find that (i) the gap always fills up at finite T with D_{L}(ω)≈A_{4}(T)ω^{4} and A_{4}∼exp(-E_{a}/T) at low T, (ii) E_{a} rapidly grows with ω_{c}, in reasonable agreement with a simple scaling prediction E_{a}∼ω_{c}^{4} and (iii) at larger ω_{c} excitations involve fewer particles, as we rationalize, and eventually become stringlike. We propose an interpretation of mean-field theories of the glass transition, in which the modes beyond the gap act as an excitation reservoir, from which a pseudogap distribution is populated with its magnitude rapidly decreasing at lower T. We discuss how this picture unifies the rarefaction as well as the decreasing size of excitations upon cooling, together with a stringlike relaxation occurring near the glass transition.

How collective asperity detachments nucleate slip at frictional interfaces.

Sliding at a quasi-statically loaded frictional interface can occur via macroscopic slip events, which nucleate locally before propagating as rupture fronts very similar to fracture. We introduce a microscopic model of a frictional interface that includes asperity-level disorder, elastic interaction between local slip events, and inertia. For a perfectly flat and homogeneously loaded interface, we find that slip is nucleated by avalanches of asperity detachments of extension larger than a critical radius [Formula: see text] governed by a Griffith criterion. We find that after slip, the density of asperities at a local distance to yielding [Formula: see text] presents a pseudogap [Formula: see text], where θ is a nonuniversal exponent that depends on the statistics of the disorder. This result makes a link between friction and the plasticity of amorphous materials where a pseudogap is also present. For friction, we find that a consequence is that stick-slip is an extremely slowly decaying finite-size effect, while the slip nucleation radius [Formula: see text] diverges as a θ-dependent power law of the system size. We discuss how these predictions can be tested experimentally.

Theory for the density of interacting quasilocalized modes in amorphous solids.

Quasilocalized modes appear in the vibrational spectrum of amorphous solids at low frequency. Though never formalized, these modes are believed to have a close relationship with other important local excitations, including shear transformations and two-level systems. We provide a theory for their frequency density, D_{L}(ω)∼ω^{α}, that establishes this link for systems at zero temperature under quasistatic loading. It predicts two regimes depending on the density of shear transformations P(x)∼x^{θ} (with x the additional stress needed to trigger a shear transformation). If θ>1/4, then α=4 and a finite fraction of quasilocalized modes form shear transformations, whose amplitudes vanish at low frequencies. If θ<1/4, then α=3+4θ and all quasilocalized modes form shear transformations with a finite amplitude at vanishing frequencies. We confirm our predictions numerically.