Structure and dynamics of topological defects in a glassy liquid on a negatively curved manifold

TL;DR

This study explores the behavior of topological defects in a glassy liquid on a negatively curved surface, combining molecular dynamics simulations with continuum defect theory to understand defect structures and dynamics.

Contribution

It provides new insights into defect structures in glassy liquids on hyperbolic surfaces, extending previous work on positively curved geometries.

Findings

Identification of grain boundary scars around disclinations

Agreement between simulations and continuum theory

Insights into defect dynamics in curved spaces

Abstract

We study the low-temperature regime of an atomic liquid on the hyperbolic plane by means of molecular dynamics simulation and we compare the results to a continuum theory of defects in a negatively curved hexagonal background. In agreement with the theory and previous results on positively curved (spherical) surfaces, we find that the atomic configurations consist of isolated defect structures, dubbed "grain boundary scars", that form around an irreducible density of curvature-induced disclinations in an otherwise hexagonal background. We investigate the structure and the dynamics of these grain boundary scars.