Self-organization and memory formation in two-dimensional jammed deformable matter under cyclic compression

TL;DR

This study investigates how deformable particles in jammed matter respond to cyclic compression, revealing mechanisms of self-organization and memory encoding through microscale deformation behaviors.

Contribution

It uncovers how particle deformability influences collective self-organization and memory formation in jammed soft matter under cyclic loading.

Findings

Monodisperse systems anneal to nearly reversible paths under cyclic compression.

Polydisperse systems develop stable, hysteretic limit cycles encoding training history.

Hysteresis arises from asymmetric non-affine deformations at the microscale.

Abstract

We study the athermal mechanical response of deformable ring assemblies to quasistatic compression. Beyond jamming, further densification induces buckling of rings, resulting in macroscopic mechanical softening. Under cyclic compression, monodisperse systems anneal toward a nearly reversible path passing through an ordered state, whereas polydisperse systems converge to stable, hysteretic limit cycles. These limit cycles encode a robust memory of the training history that is retained even under subsequent overdriving. We show that macroscopic hysteresis in the disordered packings originates from directionally asymmetric non-affine deformations at the microscale while keeping contact network largely intact. Our findings demonstrate how particle deformability governs collective self-organization and memory formation in jammed soft matter.