Jamming as a Multicritical Point

TL;DR

This paper models the jamming transition as a multicritical point where rigidity percolation and contact network formation intersect, providing a new lattice-based framework to understand jamming phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces lattice models with adjustable contact networks that capture the multicritical nature of jamming and its connection to rigidity percolation.

Findings

Jamming transition acts as a multicritical point in the models.

The models accurately reproduce the critical contact network at jamming.

Jamming is related to a line of rigidity-percolation transitions.

Abstract

The discontinuous jump in the bulk modulus $B$ at the jamming transition is a consequence of the formation of a critical contact network of spheres that resists compression. We introduce lattice models with underlying under-coordinated compression resistant spring lattices to which next-nearest-neighbor springs can be added. In these models, the jamming transition emerges as a kind of multicritical point terminating a line of rigidity-percolation transitions. Replacing the under-coordinated lattices with the critical network at jamming yields a faithful description of jamming and its relation to rigidity percolation.