One-dimensional Kac model of dense amorphous hard spheres

We introduce a new model of hard spheres under confinement for the study of the glass and jamming transitions. The model is an one-dimensional chain of the $d$-dimensional boxes each of which contains the same number of hard spheres, and the particles in the boxes of the ends of the chain are quenched at their equilibrium positions. We focus on the infinite dimensional limit ($d \to \infty$) of the model and analytically compute the glass transition densities using the replica liquid theory. From the chain length dependence of the transition densities, we extract the characteristic length scales at the glass transition. The divergence of the lengths are characterized by the two exponents, $-1/4$ for the dynamical transition and $-1$ for the ideal glass transition, which are consistent with those of the $p$-spin mean-field spin glass model. We also show that the model is useful for the study of the growing length scale at the jamming transition.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Cluster and reentrant anomalies of nearly Gaussian core particles

We study through integral equation theory and numerical simulations the structure and dynamics of fluids composed of ultrasoft, nearly Gaussian particles. Namely, we explore the fluid phase diagram of a model in which particles interact via the generalized exponential potential u(r)=\epsilon exp[-(r/\sigma)^n], with a softness exponent n slightly larger than 2. In addition to the well-known anomaly associated to reentrant melting, the structure and dynamics of the fluid display two additional anomalies, which are visible in the isothermal variation of the structure factor and diffusivity. These features are correlated to the appearance of dimers in the fluid phase and to the subsequent modification of the cluster structure upon compression. We corroborate these results through an analysis of the local minima of the potential energy surface, in which clusters appear as much tighter conglomerates of particles. We find that reentrant melting and clustering coexist for softness exponents ranging from 2^+ up to values relevant for the description of amphiphilic dendrimers, i.e., n=3.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Thinning or thickening? Multiple rheological regimes in dense suspensions of soft particles

The shear rheology of dense colloidal and granular suspensions is strongly nonlinear, as these materials exhibit shear-thinning and shear-thickening, depending on multiple physical parameters. We numerically study the rheology of a simple model of soft repulsive particles at large densities, and show that nonlinear flow curves reminiscent of experiments on real suspensions can be obtained. By using dimensional analysis and basic elements of kinetic theory, we rationalize these multiple rheological regimes and disentangle the relative impact of thermal fluctuations, glass and jamming transitions, inertia and particle softness on the flow curves. We characterize more specifically the shear-thickening regime and show that both particle softness and the emergence of a yield stress at the jamming transition compete with the inertial effects responsible for the observed thickening behaviour. This allows us to construct a dynamic state diagram, which can be used to analyze experiments.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure