Do thermodynamically stable rigid solids exist?

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether thermodynamically stable rigid solids exist by analyzing particle rearrangements and free energy landscapes, revealing that rigidity is metastable and can be stabilized by an external field, leading to a phase transition.

Contribution

It introduces a thermodynamic variable and simulation approach to characterize rigidity, showing rigidity as metastable and identifying a phase transition line in the field-strain plane.

Findings

Rigid crystals are metastable at finite strain.

A phase transition line exists in the field-strain plane.

Rigidity can be stabilized by an external field.

Abstract

Customarily, crystalline solids are defined to be {\em rigid} since they resist changes of shape determined by their boundaries. However, rigid solids cannot exist in the thermodynamic limit where boundaries become irrelevant. Particles in the solid may rearrange to adjust to shape changes eliminating stress without destroying crystalline order. Rigidity is therefore valid only in the {\em metastable} state that emerges because these particle rearrangements in response to a deformation, or strain, are associated with slow collective processes. Here, we show that a thermodynamic collective variable may be used to quantify particle rearrangements that occur as a solid is deformed at zero strain rate. Advanced Monte Carlo simulation techniques are then employed to obtain the equilibrium free energy as a function of this variable. Our results lead to a new view on rigidity: While at zero strain a rigid crystal coexists with one that responds to infinitesimal strain by rearranging particles and expelling stress, at finite strain the rigid crystal is metastable, associated with a free energy barrier that decreases with increasing strain. The rigid phase becomes thermodynamically stable by switching on an external field, which penalises particle rearrangements. This produces a line of first-order phase transitions in the field - strain plane that intersects the origin. Failure of a solid once strained beyond its elastic limit is associated with kinetic decay processes of the metastable rigid crystal deformed with a finite strain rate. These processes can be understood in quantitative detail using our computed phase diagram as reference.