Universal Sound Absorption in Amorphous Solids: A Theory of Elastically Coupled Generic Blocks

TL;DR

This paper develops a theory explaining the universal low-temperature acoustic properties of glasses through elastic interactions between generic blocks, highlighting the emergent universality independent of microscopic details.

Contribution

It introduces a model of coupled elastic blocks with randomness to explain the universality in glassy low-temperature properties.

Findings

Universality arises from elastic interactions between blocks.

The model reproduces known universal acoustic attenuation.

Microscopic details are not crucial for the emergent behavior.

Abstract

Glasses are known to exhibit quantitative universalities at low temperatures, the most striking of which is the ultrasonic attenuation coefficient 1/Q. In this work we develop a theory of coupled generic blocks with a certain randomness property to show that universality emerges essentially due to the interactions between elastic blocks, regardless of their microscopic nature.