Non-steady relaxation and critical exponents at the depinning transition

We study the non-steady relaxation of a driven one-dimensional elastic interface at the depinning transition by extensive numerical simulations concurrently implemented on graphics processing units (GPUs). We compute the time-dependent velocity and roughness as the interface relaxes from a flat initial configuration at the thermodynamic random-manifold critical force. Above a first, non-universal microscopic time-regime, we find a non-trivial long crossover towards the non-steady macroscopic critical regime. This "mesoscopic" time-regime is robust under changes of the microscopic disorder including its random-bond or random-field character, and can be fairly described as power-law corrections to the asymptotic scaling forms yielding the true critical exponents. In order to avoid fitting effective exponents with a systematic bias we implement a practical criterion of consistency and perform large-scale (L~2^{25}) simulations for the non-steady dynamics of the continuum displacement quenched Edwards Wilkinson equation, getting accurate and consistent depinning exponents for this class: \beta = 0.245 \pm 0.006, z = 1.433 \pm 0.007, \zeta=1.250 \pm 0.005 and \nu=1.333 \pm 0.007. Our study may explain numerical discrepancies (as large as 30% for the velocity exponent \beta) found in the literature. It might also be relevant for the analysis of experimental protocols with driven interfaces keeping a long-term memory of the initial condition.Comment: Published version (including erratum). Codes and Supplemental Material available at https://bitbucket.org/ezeferrero/qe

Relaxation in yield stress systems through elastically interacting activated events

We study consequences of long-range elasticity in thermally assisted dynamics of yield stress materials. Within a two-dimensinal mesoscopic model we calculate the mean-square displacement and the dynamical structure factor for tracer particle trajectories. The ballistic regime at short time scales is associated with a compressed exponential decay in the dynamical structure factor, followed by a subdiffusive crossover prior to the onset of diffusion. We relate this crossover to spatiotemporal correlations and thus go beyond established mean field predictions.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, to appear in PR

Elastic interfaces on disordered substrates: From mean-field depinning to yielding

We consider a model of an elastic manifold driven on a disordered energy landscape, with generalized long range elasticity. Varying the form of the elastic kernel by progressively allowing for the existence of zero modes, the model interpolates smoothly between mean-field depinning and finite dimensional yielding. We find that the critical exponents of the model change smoothly in this process. Also, we show that in all cases the Herschel-Buckley exponent of the flow curve depends on the analytical form of the microscopic pinning potential. Within the present elastoplastic description, all this suggests that yielding in finite dimensions is a mean-field transition.Fil: Ferrero, Ezequiel E.. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología - Nodo Bariloche | Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología - Nodo Bariloche; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; ArgentinaFil: Jagla, Eduardo Alberto. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro. Archivo Histórico del Centro Atómico Bariloche e Instituto Balseiro | Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Balseiro. Archivo Histórico del Centro Atómico Bariloche e Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentin

Criticality in elastoplastic models of amorphous solids with stress-dependent yielding rates

We analyze the behavior of different elastoplastic models approaching the yielding transition. We propose two kinds of rules for the local yielding events: Yielding occurs above the local threshold either at a constant rate or with a rate that increases as the square root of the stress excess. We establish a family of "static" universal critical exponents which do not depend on this dynamic detail of the model rules: In particular, the exponents for the avalanche size distribution P(S) ∼ S-τSf(S/Ldf) and the exponents describing the density of sites at the verge of yielding, which we find to be of the form P(x) ≃ P(0) + xθ with P(0) ∼ L-a controlling the extremal statistics. On the other hand, we discuss "dynamical" exponents that are sensitive to the local yielding rule. We find that, apart form the dynamical exponent z controlling the duration of avalanches, also the flowcurve's (inverse) Herschel-Bulkley exponent β ( ∼ (σ-σc)β) enters in this category, and is seen to differ in ½ between the two yielding rate cases. We give analytical support to this numerical observation by calculating the exponent variation in the Hébraud-Lequeux model and finding an identical shift. We further discuss an alternative mean-field approximation to yielding only based on the so-called Hurst exponent of the accumulated mechanical noise signal, which gives good predictions for the exponents extracted from simulations of fully spatial models.Fil: Ferrero, Ezequiel E.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología - Nodo Bariloche | Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología - Nodo Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Jagla, Eduardo Alberto. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro. Archivo Histórico del Centro Atómico Bariloche e Instituto Balseiro | Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Balseiro. Archivo Histórico del Centro Atómico Bariloche e Instituto Balseiro.; Argentin

Driving rate dependence of avalanche statistics and shapes at the yielding transition

We study stress time series caused by plastic avalanches in athermally sheared disordered materials. Using particle-based simulations and a mesoscopic elasto-plastic model, we analyze size and shear-rate dependence of the stress-drop durations and size distributions together with their average temporal shape. We find critical exponents different from mean-field predictions, and a clear asymmetry for individual avalanches. We probe scaling relations for the rate dependency of the dynamics and we report a crossover towards mean-field results for strong driving.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, supplementary material to be found at http://www-liphy.ujf-grenoble.fr/pagesperso/martens/documents/liu2015-sm.pd

q-State Potts model metastability study using optimized GPU-based Monte Carlo algorithms

We implemented a GPU based parallel code to perform Monte Carlo simulations of the two dimensional q-state Potts model. The algorithm is based on a checkerboard update scheme and assigns independent random numbers generators to each thread. The implementation allows to simulate systems up to ~10^9 spins with an average time per spin flip of 0.147ns on the fastest GPU card tested, representing a speedup up to 155x, compared with an optimized serial code running on a high-end CPU. The possibility of performing high speed simulations at large enough system sizes allowed us to provide a positive numerical evidence about the existence of metastability on very large systems based on Binder's criterion, namely, on the existence or not of specific heat singularities at spinodal temperatures different of the transition one.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figures. Accepted in Computer Physics Communications. code available at: http://www.famaf.unc.edu.ar/grupos/GPGPU/Potts/CUDAPotts.htm

Long term ordering kinetics of the two dimensional q-state Potts model

We studied the non-equilibrium dynamics of the q-state Potts model in the square lattice, after a quench to sub-critical temperatures. By means of a continuous time Monte Carlo algorithm (non-conserved order parameter dynamics) we analyzed the long term behavior of the energy and relaxation time for a wide range of quench temperatures and system sizes. For q>4 we found the existence of different dynamical regimes, according to quench temperature range. At low (but finite) temperatures and very long times the Lifshitz-Allen-Cahn domain growth behavior is interrupted with finite probability when the system stuck in highly symmetric non-equilibrium metastable states, which induce activation in the domain growth, in agreement with early predictions of Lifshitz [JETP 42, 1354 (1962)]. Moreover, if the temperature is very low, the system always gets stuck at short times in a highly disordered metastable states with finite life time, which have been recently identified as glassy states. The finite size scaling properties of the different relaxation times involved, as well as their temperature dependency are analyzed in detail.Comment: 10 pages, 17 figure

Depinning free of the elastic approximation

We model the isotropic depinning transition of a domain-wall using a two dimensional Ginzburg-Landau scalar field instead of a directed elastic string in a random media. An exact algorithm accurately targets both the critical depinning field and the critical configuration for each sample. For random bond disorder of weak strength $\Delta$, the critical field scales as $\Delta^{4/3}$ in agreement with the predictions for the quenched Edwards-Wilkinson elastic model. However, critical configurations display overhangs beyond a characteristic length $l_{\tt 0} \sim \Delta^{-\alpha}$, with $\alpha\approx 2.2$, indicating a finite-size crossover. At the large scales, overhangs recover the orientational symmetry which is broken by directed elastic interfaces. We obtain quenched Edwards-Wilkinson exponents below $l_{\tt 0}$ and invasion percolation depinning exponents above $l_{\tt 0}$. A full picture of domain wall isotropic depinning in two dimensions is hence proposed.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Short-time dynamics of finite-size mean-field systems

We study the short-time dynamics of a mean-field model with non-conserved order parameter (Curie-Weiss with Glauber dynamics) by solving the associated Fokker-Planck equation. We obtain closed-form expressions for the first moments of the order parameter, near to both the critical and spinodal points, starting from different initial conditions. This allows us to confirm the validity of the short-time dynamical scaling hypothesis in both cases. Although the procedure is illustrated for a particular mean-field model, our results can be straightforwardly extended to generic models with a single order parameter.Comment: accepted for publication in JSTA

Yielding of amorphous solids at finite temperatures

We analyze the effect of temperature on the yielding transition of amorphous solids using different coarse-grained model approaches. On one hand, we use an elastoplastic model, with temperature introduced in the form of an Arrhenius activation law over energy barriers. On the other hand, we implement a Hamiltonian model with a relaxational dynamics, where temperature is introduced in the form of a Langevin stochastic force. In both cases, temperature transforms the sharp transition of the athermal case in a smooth crossover. We show that this thermally smoothed transition follows a simple scaling form that can be fully explained using a one-particle system driven in a potential under the combined action of a mechanical and a thermal noise, namely, the stochastically driven Prandtl-Tomlinson model. Our work harmonizes the results of simple models for amorphous solids with the phenomenological ∼T2/3 law proposed by Johnson and Samwer [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 195501 (2005)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.95.195501] in the framework of experimental metallic glasses yield observations, and extend it to a generic case. Conclusively, our results strengthen the interpretation of the yielding transition as an effective mean-field phenomenon.Fil: Ferrero, Ezequiel E.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología - Nodo Bariloche | Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología - Nodo Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Kolton, Alejandro Benedykt. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia de Física (Centro Atómico Bariloche); Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; ArgentinaFil: Jagla, Eduardo Alberto. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia de Física (Centro Atómico Bariloche); Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentin