Long-range correlations in pinned athermal networks

TL;DR

This paper derives exact analytical results for displacement fields and their correlations in two-dimensional athermal networks with pinning forces, revealing long-range correlations and decay behaviors, supported by numerical simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a Green's function formalism for analyzing displacement fields in athermal networks and extends it to study displacement correlations due to pinning forces.

Findings

Displacement fields decay as 1/r at large distances.

Uncorrelated pinning forces induce long-range displacement correlations.

Numerical simulations confirm the theoretical predictions.

Abstract

We derive exact results for displacement fields that develop as a response to external pinning forces in two dimensional athermal networks. For a triangular lattice arrangement of particles interacting through soft potentials, we develop a Green's function formalism which we use to derive exact results for displacement fields produced by localized external forces. We show that in the continuum limit the displacement fields decay as $1/r$ at large distances $r$ away from a force dipole. Finally, we extend our formulation to study correlations in the displacement fields produced by the external pinning forces. We show that uncorrelated pinned forces at each vertex give rise to long-range correlations in displacements in athermal systems, with a non-trivial system size dependence. We verify our predictions with numerical simulations of athermal networks in two dimensions.