arXiv subjects

Elijah Flenner

Publications and source records attributed to Elijah Flenner.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Sound Attenuation in Glasses

Comprehending sound damping is integral to understanding the anomalous low temperature properties of glasses. Despite decades of studies, the underlying mechanism of sound damping in glasses is still debated. In this perspective we review recent work on sound damping in amorphous solids. We focus on the role of defects, heterogeneous elasticity, and damping in model amorphous solids without defects. We review our definition of damping defects and show that they strongly influence sound damping. However, we also find another contribution to sound damping that cannot be attributed to damping defects. We confirm an earlier result of Kapteijns et al. [G. Kapteijns et al., J. Chem. Phys. 154, 081101 (2021)] that heterogeneous elasticity theory predicts relative changes of sound damping in model two-dimensional glasses if the configuration-to-configuration elastic constants fluctuations are used to quantify the heterogeneity. We extend this finding to similar three-dimensional glasses. We end by discussing the Euclidean Random Matrix model, which exhibits Rayleigh scaling of sound damping, but does not have quasi-localized excitations, and thus probably does not have sound damping defects. We propose that the mechanisms behind sound damping can be more fully understood by approaching the problem from two directions, one where the strong influence of defects is studied and another where sound damping is studied in defect free albeit disordered materials.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2025

Defects, Sound Damping, and the Boson Peak in Amorphous Solids

Two nearly universal and anomalous properties of glasses, the peak in the specific heat and plateau of the thermal conductivity, occur around the same temperature. This coincidence suggests that the two phenomena are related. Both effects can be rationalized by assuming Rayleigh scaling of sound attenuation and this scaling leads one to consider scattering from defects. Identifying defects in glasses, which are inherently disordered, is a long-standing problem that was approached in several ways. We examine candidates for defects in glasses that represent areas of strong sound damping. We show that some defects are associated with quasi-localized excitations, which may be associated with modes in excess of the Debye theory. We also examine generalized Debye relations, which relate sound damping and the speed of sound to excess modes. We derive a generalized Debye relation that does not resort to an approximation used by previous authors. We find that our relation and the relation given by previous authors are almost identical at small frequencies and also reproduce the independently determined density of states. However, the different generalized Debye relations do not agree around the boson peak. While generalized Debye relations accurately predict the boson peak in two-dimensional glasses, they under estimate the boson peak in three-dimensional glasses.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2024

The Origin of Sound Damping in Amorphous Solids: Defects and Beyond

Comprehending sound damping is integral to understanding the anomalous low temperature properties of glasses. After decades of theoretical and experimental studies, Rayleigh scattering scaling of the sound attenuation coefficient with frequency, $\Gamma \sim \omega^{d+1}$, became generally accepted when quantum and finite temperature effects can be neglected. Rayleigh scaling invokes a picture of scattering from defects. However, it is unclear how to define glass defects, or even if defects are necessary for Rayleigh scaling. Here we determine a particle level contribution to sound damping in the Rayleigh scaling regime. We find that there are areas in the glass that contribute more to sound damping than other areas over a range of frequencies, which allows us to define defects. We show that over a range of glass stability, sound damping scales linearly with the fraction of particles in the defects. However, sound is still attenuated in ultra-stable glasses where no defects are identified. We show that sound damping in these glasses is due to nearly uniformly distributed non-affine, microscopic forces that arise after macroscopic deformations of non-centrosymetric structures. To fully understand sound attenuation in glasses one has to consider contributions from defects and a defect-free background, which represents a new paradigm of sound damping in glasses.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2023

Extremely Persistent Dense Active Fluids

We examine the dependence of the dynamics of three-dimensional active fluids on persistence time $\tau_p$ and average self-propulsion force $f$. In the large persistence time limit many properties of these fluids become $\tau_p$-independent. These properties include the mean squared velocity, the self-intermediate scattering function, the shear-stress correlation function and the low-shear-rate viscosity. We find that for a given $f$ in the large $\tau_p$ limit the mean squared displacement is independent of the persistence time for times shorter than $\tau_p$ and the long-time self-diffusion coefficient is proportional to the persistence time. For a large range of self-propulsion forces the large persistence time limits of many properties depend on $f$ as power laws.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2022

Scaling of the Non-Phononic Spectrum of Two-Dimensional Glasses

Low-frequency vibrational harmonic modes of glasses are frequently used to understand their universal low-temperature properties. One well studied feature is the excess low-frequency density of states over the Debye model prediction. Here we examine the system size dependence of the density of states for two-dimensional glasses. For systems of fewer than 100 particles, the density of states scales with the system size as if all the modes were plane-wave-like. However, for systems greater than 100 particles we find a different system-size scaling of the cumulative density of states below the first transverse sound mode frequency, which can be derived from the assumption that these modes are quasi-localized. Moreover, for systems greater than 100 particles, we find that the cumulative density of states scales with frequency as a power law with the exponent that leads to the exponent $\beta=3.5$ for the density of states independent of system size.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2022

Are supercooled liquids Fickian yet non Gaussian?

Comment on `Fickian Non-Gaussian Diffusion in Glass-Forming Liquids', by Rusciano et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 168001 (2022). In a recent Letter, Rusciano et al. examined the statistics of individual particles displacements in two-dimensional glass-formers and concluded that the corresponding probability distribution is non-Gaussian in a time regime where the mean-squared displacement is Fickian. Here, we clarify that the multiple length scales and time scales reported in this work have either been characterized before, or are not well-defined. This leads us to dispute the conclusions that glass-formers display Fickian non-Gaussian behaviour and that this analogy fruitfully addresses the central questions regarding the nature of dynamic heterogeneity in these systems.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2022

Scaling of the Non-Phononic Spectrum of Two-Dimensional Glasses

The scaling of the non-phononic spectrum for 2D systems has been recently debated. Here we provide evidence that the non-phononic spectrum $D_{ex}(ω) \sim ω^β$ where $β\approx 3.5$ and there is no clear evidence of a finite size effect in beta for systems greater than 100 particles.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2022

Microscopic analysis of sound attenuation in low-temperature amorphous solids reveals quantitative importance of non-affine effects

Sound attenuation in low temperature amorphous solids originates from their disordered structure. However, its detailed mechanism is still being debated. Here we analyze sound attenuation starting directly from the microscopic equations of motion. We derive an exact expression for the zero-temperature sound damping coefficient. We verify that the sound damping coefficients calculated from our expression agree very well with results from independent simulations of sound attenuation. The small wavevector analysis of our expression shows that sound attenuation is primarily determined by the non-affine displacements' contribution to the sound wave propagation coefficient coming from the frequency shell of the sound wave. Our expression involves only quantities that pertain to solids' static configurations. It can be used to evaluate the low temperature sound damping coefficients without directly simulating sound attenuation.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2021

Single particle fluctuations dominate the long-time dynamic susceptibility in glass-forming liquids

Liquids near the glass transition exhibit dynamical heterogeneity, i.e. correlated regions in the liquid relax at either a much faster rate or a much slower rate than the average. This collective phenomenon has been characterized by measurements of a dynamic susceptibility $χ_4(t)$, which are sometimes interpreted in terms of the size of those relaxing regions and the intensity of the fluctuations. We show that the results of those measurements can be affected not only by the collective fluctuations in the relaxation rate, but also by density fluctuations in the initial state and by single-particle fluctuations. We also show that at very long times the average overlap $C(t)$ probing the similarity between an initial and a final state separated by a time interval $t$ decays as a power law $C(t) \sim t^{-d/2}$. This is much slower than the stretched exponential behavior $C(t) \sim {\rm e}^{-(t/τ)^β}$ previously observed at times within one or two orders of magnitude of the $α$-relaxation time $τ_α$. We find that for times longer than $10-100 τ_α$, the dynamic susceptibility $χ_4(t)$ is dominated by single particle fluctuations, and that $χ_4(t) \approx C(t) \sim t^{-d/2}$. Finally, we introduce a method to extract the collective relaxation contribution to the dynamic susceptibility $χ_4(t)$ by subtracting the effects of single-particle fluctuations and initial state density fluctuations. We apply this method to numerical simulations of two glass forming models: a binary hard sphere system and a Kob-Andersen Lennard-Jones system. This allows us to extend the analysis of numerical data to timescales much longer than previously possible, and opens the door for further future progress in the study of dynamic heterogeneities, including the determination of the exchange time.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2021

Low-frequency excess vibrational modes in two-dimensional glasses

Glasses possess more low-frequency vibrational modes than predicted by Debye theory. These excess modes are crucial for the understanding the low temperature thermal and mechanical properties of glasses, which differ from those of crystalline solids. Recent simulational studies suggest that the density of the excess modes scales with their frequency $ω$ as $ω^4$ in two and higher dimensions. Here, we present extensive numerical studies of two-dimensional model glass formers over a large range of glass stabilities. We find that the density of the excess modes follows $D_\text{exc}(ω)\sim ω^2 $ up to around the boson peak, regardless of the glass stability. The stability dependence of the overall scale of $D_\text{exc}(ω)$ correlates with the stability dependence of low-frequency sound attenuation. However, we also find that in small systems, where the first sound mode is pushed to higher frequencies, at frequencies below the first sound mode there are excess modes with a system size independent density of states that scales as $ω^3$.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2021

Tagged active particle: probability distribution in a slowly varying external potential is determined by effective temperature obtained from the Einstein relation

We derive a distribution function for the position of a tagged active particle in a slowly varying in space external potential, in a system of interacting active particles. The tagged particle distribution has the form of the Boltzmann distribution but with an effective temperature that replaces the temperature of the heat bath. We show that the effective temperature that enters the tagged particle distribution is the same as the effective temperature defined through the Einstein relation, i.e. it is equal to the ratio of the self-diffusion and tagged particle mobility coefficients. This shows that this effective temperature, which is defined through a fluctuation-dissipation ratio, is relevant beyond the linear response regime. We verify our theoretical findings through computer simulations. Our theory fails when an additional large length scale appears in our active system. This length scale is associated with long-wavelength density fluctuations that emerge upon approaching motility-induced phase separation.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2021

Long-ranged velocity correlations in dense systems of self-propelled particles

Model systems of self-propelled particles reproduce many phenomena observed in laboratory active matter systems that defy our thermal equilibrium-based intuition. In particular, in stationary states of self-propelled systems, it is recognized that velocities of different particles exhibit non-trivial equal-time correlations. Such correlations are absent in equivalent equilibrium systems. Recently, researchers found that the range of the velocity correlations increases with increasing persistence time of the self-propulsion and can extend over many particle diameters. Here we review the initial studies of long-ranged velocity correlations in solid-like systems of self-propelled particles. Then, we demonstrate that the long-ranged velocity correlations are also present in dense fluid-like systems. We show that the range of velocity correlations in dense systems of self-propelled particles is determined by the combination of the self-propulsion and the virial bulk modulus that originates from repulsive interparticle interactions.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2020

Active matter: quantifying the departure from equilibrium

Active matter systems are driven out of equilibrium at the level of individual constituents. One widely studied class are systems of athermal particles that move under the combined influence of interparticle interactions and self-propulsions, with the latter evolving according to the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck stochastic process. Intuitively, these so-called active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck particles (AOUPs) systems are farther from equilibrium for longer self-propulsion persistence times. Quantitatively, this is confirmed by the increasing equal-time velocity correlations (which are trivial in equilibrium) and by the increasing violation of the Einstein relation between the self-diffusion and mobility coefficients. In contrast, the entropy production rate, calculated from the ratio of the probabilities of the position space trajectory and its time-reversed counterpart, has a non-monotonic dependence on the persistence time. Thus, it does not properly quantify the departure of AOUPs systems from equilibrium.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2020

Sound attenuation in finite-temperature stable glasses

The temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity of amorphous solids is markedly different from that of their crystalline counterparts, but exhibits universal behaviour. Sound attenuation is believed to be related to this universal behaviour. Recent computer simulations demonstrated that in the harmonic approximation sound attenuation $Γ$ obeys quartic, Rayleigh scattering scaling for small wavevectors $k$ and quadratic scaling for wavevectors above the Ioffe-Regel limit. However, simulations and experiments do not provide a clear picture of what to expect at finite temperatures where anharmonic effects become relevant. Here we study sound attenuation at finite temperatures for model glasses of various stability, from unstable glasses that exhibit rapid aging to glasses whose stability is equal to those created in laboratory experiments. We find several scaling laws depending on the temperature and stability of the glass. First, we find the large wavevector quadratic scaling to be unchanged at all temperatures. Second, we find that at small wavectors $Γ\sim k^{1.5}$ for an aging glass, but $Γ\sim k^2$ when the glass does not age on the timescale of the calculation. For our most stable glass, we find that $Γ\sim k^2$ at small wavevectors, then a crossover to Rayleigh scattering scaling $Γ\sim k^4$, followed by another crossover to the quadratic scaling at large wavevectors. Our computational observation of this quadratic behavior reconciles simulation, theory and experiment, and will advance the understanding of the temperature dependence of thermal conductivity of glasses.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2019

Energy Transport in Glasses

The temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity is linked to the nature of the energy transport at a frequency omega, which is quantified by thermal diffusivity d(omega). Here we study d(omega) for a poorly annealed glass and a highly stable glass prepared using the swap Monte Carlo algorithm. To calculate d(omega), we excite wave packets and find that the energy moves diffusively for high frequencies up to a maximum frequency, beyond which the energy stays localized. At intermediate frequencies, we find a linear increase of the square of the width of the wave packet with time, which allows for a robust calculation of d(omega), but the wave packet is no longer well described by a Gaussian as for high frequencies. In this intermediate regime, there is a transition from a nearly frequency independent thermal diffusivity at high frequencies to d(omega) ~ omega^(-4) at low frequencies. For low frequencies the sound waves are responsible for energy transport and the energy moves ballistically. The low frequency behavior can be predicted using sound attenuation coefficients.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2019

Front-mediated melting of ultrastable glasses

Ultrastable vapor-deposited glasses display uncommon material properties. Most remarkably, upon heating they are believed to melt via a liquid front that originates at the free surface and propagates over a mesoscopic crossover length, before crossing over to bulk melting. We combine swap Monte Carlo with molecular dynamics simulations to prepare and melt isotropic amorphous films of unprecedendtly high kinetic stability. We are able to directly observe both bulk and front melting, and the crossover between them. We measure the front velocity over a broad range of conditions, and a crossover length scale that grows to nearly $400$ particle diameters in the regime accessible to simulations. Our results disentangle the relative roles of kinetic stability and vapor deposition in the physical properties of stable glasses.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2019

Stability dependence of local structural heterogeneities of stable amorphous solids

The universal anomalous vibrational and thermal properties of amorphous solids are believed to be related to the local variations of the elasticity. Recently it has been shown that the vibrational properties are sensitive to the glass's stability. Here we study the stability dependence of the local elastic constants of a simulated glass former over a broad range of stabilities, from a poorly annealed glass to a glass whose stability is comparable to laboratory exceptionally stable vapor deposited glasses. We show that with increasing stability the glass becomes more uniform as evidenced by a smaller variance of local elastic constants. We find that, according to the definition of local elastic moduli used in this work, the local elastic moduli are not spatially correlated.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2019

Sound attenuation in stable glasses

Understanding the difference between universal low-temperature properties of amorphous and crystalline solids requires an explanation of the stronger damping of long-wavelength phonons in amorphous solids. A longstanding sound attenuation scenario, resulting from a combination of experiments, theories, and simulations, leads to a quartic scaling of sound attenuation with the wavevector, which is commonly attributed to Rayleigh scattering of the sound. Modern computer simulations offer conflicting conclusions regarding the validity of this picture. We simulate glasses with an unprecedentedly broad range of stabilities to perform the first microscopic analysis of sound damping in model glass formers across a range of experimentally relevant preparation protocols. We present a convincing evidence that quartic scaling is recovered for small wavevectors irrespective of the glass's stability. With increasing stability, the wavevector where the quartic scaling begins increases by approximately a factor of three and the sound attenuation decreases by over an order of magnitude. Our results uncover an intimate connection between glass stability and sound damping.

cond-mat.soft↗