Glassy, Gardner-like Phenomenology in Minimally Polydisperse Crystalline Systems

TL;DR

This paper identifies a new non-equilibrium phase called the minimally disordered crystal, which exhibits glassy and jamming features similar to amorphous solids, bridging the gap between crystals and glasses.

Contribution

It introduces the minimally disordered crystal phase and characterizes its structural and dynamical properties, revealing Gardner-like phenomenology in near-crystalline systems.

Findings

Displays power-law scaling in weak forces and gaps

Exhibits flat vibrational density of states

Shows anomalous aging behavior

Abstract

We report on a non-equilibrium phase of matter, the minimally disordered crystal phase, which we find exists between the maximally amorphous glasses and the ideal crystal. Even though these near crystals appear highly ordered, they display glassy and jamming features akin to those observed in amorphous solids. Structurally, they exhibit a power-law scaling in their probability distribution of weak forces and small interparticle gaps as well as a flat density of vibrational states. Dynamically, they display anomalous aging above a characteristic pressure. Quantitatively this disordered crystal phase has much in common with the Gardner-like phase seen in maximally disordered solids. Near crystals should be amenable to experimental realizations in commercially-available particulate systems and are to be indispensable in verifying the theory of amorphous materials.