On the anomalous elasticity in the mechanical response of amorphous solids

TL;DR

This paper investigates the scale-dependent anomalous elastic behavior in amorphous solids caused by localized plastic rearrangements, using theoretical models and atomistic simulations to clarify when and how screening effects occur.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical and simulation-based analysis of the conditions under which quadrupolar defects influence elasticity in amorphous solids, challenging previous screening interpretations.

Findings

Plastic quadrupoles emerge near perturbations of size $\, ext{ extlangle}\, ext{ell} ext{ extgreater}$

Anomalous elasticity is observed at scales close to the perturbation size

Simulations reproduce quadrupole emergence but not screening effects reported elsewhere

Abstract

The response of amorphous solids to a mechanical perturbation consists in an elastic and a plastic deformation. The latter is mediated by localized irreversible rearrangements associated with Eshelby-like quadrupolar singularities in the displacement field. It has recently been argued that a density of such singularities leads to an anomalous elastic behavior taking the form of screening effects, which goes beyond classical elastic predictions. Here, we reexamine this scenario using general theoretical arguments and a description in terms of an elasto-plastic model, which we compare with atomistic simulations of the canonical Eshelby inclusion geometry. We discuss the conditions under which a finite, i.e., nonvanishing, density of quadrupolar events is created by an imposed perturbation. We argue that, except when the perturbation is macroscopic, there are many situations in which the density of quadrupolar defects is zero in the thermodynamic limit. In these cases, we find that plastically active quadrupoles emerge in a region whose size generically scales as the spatial extent $\ell$ of the mechanical perturbation. This mechanism leads to anomalous elasticity on a scale $\ell$ close to the perturbation and to conventional elasticity beyond. The simulations of the elasto-plastic model reproduce the emergence of plastic quadrupoles in a region set by $\ell$ and the associated renormalization of the effective shear modulus, but they do not exhibit the dipole-screening signatures reported in atomistic and experimental studies. Our analysis delineates the scale-dependent breakdown of long-wavelength elasticity in amorphous materials and suggests directions for incorporating anomalous screening into mesoscopic modeling frameworks.