Stiffening or softening of elastic media: Anomalous elasticity near phase transitions

Abstract

We present the general theory of Ising transitions in isotropic elastic media with vanishing thermal expansion. By constructing a minimal model with appropriate spin-lattice couplings, we show that in two dimensions near a continuous transition the elasticity is anomalous in unusual ways: the system either significantly stiffens with a hitherto unknown unique positional order logarithmically stronger than quasi-long range order, or, as the inversion-asymmetry of the order parameter in its coupling with strain increases, it destabilizes when system size $L$ exceeds a finite threshold. At three dimensions, stronger inversion-asymmetric couplings induce instability to the long-range positional order for all $L$. Sufficiently strong order parameter-displacement couplings can also turn the phase transition first order at all dimensions, concomitant with finite jumps in the elastic modulii across the transition. Our theory establishes a {\em one-to-one correspondence} between the order of the phase transitions and anomalous elasticity near the transitions.