Deformation of crystals: Connections with statistical physics

TL;DR

This paper explores the intersection of statistical physics and crystal deformation, discussing phenomena like dislocation avalanches, memory effects, and scale invariance in plasticity, with implications for understanding complex non-equilibrium systems.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview connecting statistical physics theories with the plastic deformation behavior of crystals, highlighting new insights into dislocation dynamics and scale-invariant phenomena.

Findings

Dislocation avalanches exhibit scale-invariant behavior.

Memory effects influence plastic yielding in crystals.

Analogies to fracture and jamming reveal common underlying physics.

Abstract

We give a bird's-eye view of the plastic deformation of crystals aimed at the statistical physics community, and a broad introduction into the statistical theories of forced rigid systems aimed at the plasticity community. Memory effects in magnets, spin glasses, charge density waves, and dilute colloidal suspensions are discussed in relation to the onset of plastic yielding in crystals. Dislocation avalanches and complex dislocation tangles are discussed via a brief introduction to the renormalization group and scaling. Analogies to emergent scale invariance in fracture, jamming, coarsening, and a variety of depinning transitions are explored. Dislocation dynamics in crystals challenges non equilibrium statistical physics. Statistical physics provides both cautionary tales of subtle memory effects in nonequilibrium systems, and systematic tools designed to address complex scale-invariant behavior on multiple length and time scales.