Depinning by Fracture in a Glassy Background

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a single particle moves through a simulated glass, revealing power-law behavior in velocity and cooperative distortions, with a fracture model explaining these phenomena and implications for soft matter experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a fracture-based theoretical model to explain power-law dynamics of a driven particle in a glassy medium, supported by simulation results.

Findings

Particle velocity follows a robust power law above threshold.

Driven particle induces cooperative distortions in the medium.

Fracture model explains the power-law behavior.

Abstract

We force a single particle through a two-dimensional simulated glass. We find that the particle velocity obeys a robust power law that persists to drives well above threshold. As the single driven particle moves, it induces cooperative distortions in the surrounding medium. We show theoretically that a fracture model for these distortions produces power law behavior, and discuss implications for experimental probes of soft matter systems.