135 research outputs found
Persistent memory in athermal systems in deformable energy landscapes
We show that memory can be encoded in a model amorphous solid subjected to
athermal oscillatory shear deformations, and in an analogous spin model with
disordered interactions, sharing the feature of a deformable energy landscape.
When these systems are subjected to oscillatory shear deformation, they retain
memory of the deformation amplitude imposed in the training phase, when the
amplitude is below a "localization" threshold. Remarkably, multiple,
persistent, memories can be stored using such an athermal, noise-free,
protocol. The possibility of such memory is shown to be linked to the presence
of plastic deformations and associated limit cycles traversed by the system,
which exhibit avalanche statistics also seen in related contexts.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Hydrodynamics and the fluctuation theorem
The fluctuation theorem is a pivotal result of statistical physics. It
quantifies the probability of observing fluctuations which are in violation of
the second law of thermodynamics. More specifically, it quantifies the ratio of
the probabilities of observing entropy-producing and entropy-consuming
fluctuations measured over a finite volume and time span in terms of the rate
of entropy production in the system, the measurement volume and time. We study
the fluctuation theorem in computer simulations of planar shear flow. The
simulations are performed employing the method of multiparticle collision
dynamics which captures both thermal fluctuations and hydrodynamic
interactions. The main outcome of our analysis is that the fluctuation theorem
is verified at any averaging time provided that the measurement volume exhibits
a specific dependence on a hydrodynamic time scale.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear on Physical Review Letter
Aging in short-ranged attractive colloids: A numerical study
We study the aging dynamics in a model for dense simple liquids, in which
particles interact through a hard-core repulsion complemented by a short-ranged
attractive potential, of the kind found in colloidal suspensions. In this
system, at large packing fractions, kinetically arrested disordered states can
be created both on cooling (attractive glass) and on heating (repulsive glass).
The possibility of having two distinct glasses, at the same packing fraction,
with two different dynamics offers the unique possibility of comparing --
within the same model -- the differences in aging dynamics. We find that, while
the aging dynamics of the repulsive glass is similar to the one observed in
atomic and molecular systems, the aging dynamics of the attractive glass shows
novel unexpected features.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures, submited to Journal of Chemical Physic
Mode-Coupling Theory of Colloids with Short-range Attractions
Within the framework of the mode-coupling theory of super-cooled liquids, we
investigate new phenomena in colloidal systems on approach to their glass
transitions. When the inter-particle potential contains an attractive part,
besides the usual repulsive hard core, two intersecting liquid-glass transition
lines appear, one of which extends to low densities, while the other one, at
high densities, shows a re-entrant behaviour. In the glassy region a new type
of transition appears between two different types of glasses. The complex
phenomenology can be described in terms of higher order glass transition
singularities. The various glass phases are characterised by means of their
viscoelastic properties. The glass driven by attractions has been associated to
particle gels, and the other glass is the well known repulsive colloidal glass.
These correspondences, in associations with the new predictions of glassy
behaviour mean that such phenomena may be expected in colloidal systems with,
for example, strong depletion or other short-ranged attractive potentials.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure
Configurational entropy of hard spheres
We numerically calculate the configurational entropy S_conf of a binary
mixture of hard spheres, by using a perturbed Hamiltonian method trapping the
system inside a given state, which requires less assumptions than the previous
methods [R.J. Speedy, Mol. Phys. 95, 169 (1998)]. We find that S_conf is a
decreasing function of packing fraction f and extrapolates to zero at the
Kauzmann packing fraction f_K = 0.62, suggesting the possibility of an ideal
glass-transition for hard spheres system. Finally, the Adam-Gibbs relation is
found to hold.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
New insight into cataract formation -- enhanced stability through mutual attraction
Small-angle neutron scattering experiments and molecular dynamics simulations
combined with an application of concepts from soft matter physics to complex
protein mixtures provide new insight into the stability of eye lens protein
mixtures. Exploring this colloid-protein analogy we demonstrate that weak
attractions between unlike proteins help to maintain lens transparency in an
extremely sensitive and non-monotonic manner. These results not only represent
an important step towards a better understanding of protein condensation
diseases such as cataract formation, but provide general guidelines for tuning
the stability of colloid mixtures, a topic relevant for soft matter physics and
industrial applications.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication on Phys. Rev. Let
Scaling of dynamics with the range of interaction in short-range attractive colloids
We numerically study the dependence of the dynamics on the range of
interaction for the short-range square well potential. We find that,
for small , dynamics scale exactly in the same way as thermodynamics,
both for Newtonian and Brownian microscopic dynamics. For interaction ranges
from a few percent down to the Baxter limit, the relative location of the
attractive glass line and the liquid-gas line does not depend on . This
proves that in this class of potentials, disordered arrested states (gels) can
be generated only as a result of a kinetically arrested phase separation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Confirmation of Anomalous Dynamical Arrest in attractive colloids: a molecular dynamics study
Previous theoretical, along with early simulation and experimental, studies
have indicated that particles with a short-ranged attraction exhibit a range of
new dynamical arrest phenomena. These include very pronounced reentrance in the
dynamical arrest curve, a logarithmic singularity in the density correlation
functions, and the existence of `attractive' and `repulsive' glasses. Here we
carry out extensive molecular dynamics calculations on dense systems
interacting via a square-well potential. This is one of the simplest systems
with the required properties, and may be regarded as canonical for interpreting
the phase diagram, and now also the dynamical arrest. We confirm the
theoretical predictions for re-entrance, logarithmic singularity, and give the
first direct evidence of the coexistence, independent of theory, of the two
coexisting glasses. We now regard the previous predictions of these phenomena
as having been established.Comment: 15 pages,15 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev.
Evidence for Unusual Dynamical Arrest Scenario in Short Ranged Colloidal Systems
Extensive molecular dynamics simulation studies of particles interacting via
a short ranged attractive square-well (SW) potential are reported. The
calculated loci of constant diffusion coefficient in the
temperature-packing fraction plane show a re-entrant behavior, i.e. an increase
of diffusivity on cooling, confirming an important part of the high
volume-fraction dynamical-arrest scenario earlier predicted by theory for
particles with short ranged potentials. The more efficient localization
mechanism induced by the short range bonding provides, on average, additional
free volume as compared to the hard-sphere case and results in faster dynamics.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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