Scaling Theory for Steady State Plastic Flows in Amorphous Solids

TL;DR

This paper develops a scaling theory for steady-state plastic flows in amorphous solids with inverse power-law potentials, unifying data across different conditions and connecting to supercooled liquid dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a universal scaling framework for steady plastic flow in amorphous solids, linking flow behavior to inter-particle potentials and temperature effects.

Findings

Scaling functions successfully collapse flow data across conditions

Steady state characterized by two scaled variables and an equation of state

Connection established between plastic flow scaling and supercooled liquid density scaling

Abstract

Strongly correlated amorphous solids are a class of glass-formers whose inter-particle potential admits an approximate inverse power-law form in a relevant range of inter-particle distances. We study the steady-state plastic flow of such systems, firstly in the athermal, quasi-static limit, and secondly at finite temperatures and strain rates. In all cases we demonstrate the usefulness of scaling concepts to reduce the data to universal scaling functions where the scaling exponents are determined a-priori from the inter-particle potential. In particular we show that the steady plastic flow at finite temperatures with efficient heat extraction is uniquely characterized by two scaled variables; equivalently, the steady state displays an equation of state that relates one scaled variable to the other two. We discuss the range of applicability of the scaling theory, and the connection to density scaling in supercooled liquid dynamics. We explain that the description of transient states calls for additional state variables whose identity is still far from obvious.