Universal mesoscale heterogeneity and its spatial correlations in equilibrium amorphous solids

TL;DR

This paper investigates the mesoscale heterogeneity and spatial correlations in equilibrium amorphous solids using replica field theory, providing refined statistical descriptions of localizations and their correlations.

Contribution

It introduces an advanced theoretical framework that captures detailed mesoscale heterogeneity and correlations in amorphous solids beyond mean-field approximations.

Findings

Characterization of localization heterogeneity in amorphous solids

Analysis of pairwise correlation distributions

Progression from mean-field to fluctuation-inclusive models

Abstract

Candidates for random network media include, e.g., systems consisting of long, flexible macromolecules cross-linked (i.e., permanently bonded) together at random to form the network. Owing to the random architecture, the characteristics of the thermal motion of the elements of these media vary randomly from point to point, provided the medium has been cross-linked sufficiently to exhibit the equilibrium amorphous solid state. A particular replica field theory has long been known to capture the essential physics of amorphous solids and the transition to them. Encoded in the mean value of the field associated with this theory--i.e., the transition's order parameter--is statistical information about the thermal motions of the constituents: (i) the fraction of localized constituents, and (ii) the heterogeneity of the strength of this localization. Encoded in the field's correlations is more refined information about the motions, e.g.: (i) how the localization characteristics of pairs of localized constituents are correlated, (ii) how the correlations between the position fluctuations of the pair are distributed, and (iii) how these descriptors vary with pair separation. This information about amorphous solids is referred to as mesoscale heterogeneity. Increasingly accurate approximations to the order parameter and field correlations are examined, beginning with mean-field theory, moving up to the incorporation of gapless (i.e., elastic-displacement) fluctuations, and finally via the qualitative examination of how the gapped branches of fluctuations would further improve accuracy. Hence, an increasingly accurate set of distributions is obtained, which characterize the mesoscale heterogeneity of amorphous solids. Along the way, attention is paid to the induced measure arising from the transformation from the fluctuating order-parameter field to the fluctuating elastic displacement fields.