Anomalous glassy dynamics in simple models of dense biological tissue

TL;DR

This paper investigates the unusual glassy dynamics in 2D vertex-like models of dense biological tissue, revealing sub-Arrhenius scaling and linking it to the potential energy landscape of inherent states.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of finite-temperature glassy dynamics in vertex models, highlighting their unique scaling behavior and underlying energy landscape features.

Findings

Vertex models exhibit sub-Arrhenius temperature dependence.

Unusual rigidity transitions are influenced by residual stresses.

Dynamics are connected to the potential energy landscape of inherent states.

Abstract

In order to understand the mechanisms for glassy dynamics in biological tissues and shed light on those in non-biological materials, we study the low-temperature disordered phase of 2D vertex-like models. Recently it has been noted that vertex models have quite unusual behavior in the zero-temperature limit, with rigidity transitions that are controlled by residual stresses and therefore exhibit very different scaling and phenomenology compared to particulate systems. Here we investigate the finite-temperature phase of two-dimensional Voronoi and Vertex models, and show that they have highly unusual, sub-Arrhenius scaling of dynamics with temperature. We connect the anomalous glassy dynamics to features of the potential energy landscape associated with zero-temperature inherent states.