178 research outputs found
Shear-induced overaging in a polymer glass
A phenomenon recently coined as ``overaging'' implies a slowdown in the
collective (slow) relaxation modes of a glass when a transient shear strain is
imposed. We are able to reproduce this behavior in simulations of a supercooled
polymer melt by imposing instantaneous shear deformations. The increases in
relaxation times rise rapidly with deformation, becoming
exponential in the plastic regime. This ``overaging'' is distinct from standard
aging. We find increases in pressure, bond-orientational order and in the
average energy of the inherent structures () of the system, all
dependent on the size of the deformation. The observed change in behavior from
elastic to plastic deformation suggests a link to the physics of the ``jammed
state''Comment: 5 pages including 5 figure
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