arXiv subjects

Zeb Rocklin

Publications and source records attributed to Zeb Rocklin.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Conformal Elastodynamics in 2D Dilational Metamaterials

Flexible mechanical structures can undergo large deformations under small loads, enabling large, complex, and nonlinear wave responses under finite-frequency driving. Here, we study a dynamically driven canonical flexible mechanical metamaterial composed of rigid squares connected at their corners by flexible hinges. This metamaterial supports a uniform dilational mechanism and, in the limit of ideal joints, exhibits a Poisson ratio of -1. The presence of this dilational mode of deformation gives rise to a conformal symmetry, in which the dynamics are approximately invariant under a wide class of physical transformations -- conformal maps. We find that the low-frequency response of the system is dominated by conformal deformations consisting of spatially varying rotations and dilations concentrated at the boundary. Even at high frequencies, each conformal map implies a conserved spatially complex momentum. We explore how experimental parameters such as material stiffnesses and the geometry and number of unit cells allow experimental conformal momenta to approach this conservation, varying slowly compared to the non-conformal momenta of same order. These results constitute a new framework opening fundamental avenues for the study of conformal wave phenomena in dilational metamaterials as well as potential strategies for controlling nonlinear waves and vibrations.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2022

Band theory and boundary modes of high-dimensional representations of infinite hyperbolic lattices

Periodic lattices in hyperbolic space are characterized by symmetries beyond Euclidean crystallographic groups, offering a new platform for classical and quantum waves, demonstrating great potentials for a new class of topological metamaterials. One important feature of hyperbolic lattices is that their translation group is nonabelian, permitting high-dimensional irreducible representations (irreps), in contrast to abelian translation groups in Euclidean lattices. Here we introduce a general framework to construct wave eigenstates of high-dimensional irreps of infinite hyperbolic lattices, thereby generalizing Bloch's theorem, and discuss its implications on unusual mode-counting and degeneracy, as well as bulk-edge correspondence in hyperbolic lattices. We apply this method to a mechanical hyperbolic lattice, and characterize its band structure and zero modes of high-dimensional irreps.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Hidden symmetries generate rigid folding mechanisms in periodic origami

We consider the zero-energy deformations of periodic origami sheets with generic crease patterns. Using a mapping from the linear folding motions of such sheets to force-bearing modes in conjunction with the Maxwell-Calladine index theorem we derive a relation between the number of linear folding motions and the number of rigid body modes that depends only on the average coordination number of the origami's vertices. This supports the recent result by Tachi which shows periodic origami sheets with triangular faces exhibit two-dimensional spaces of rigidly foldable cylindrical configurations. We also find, through analytical calculation and numerical simulation, branching of this configuration space from the flat state due to geometric compatibility constraints that prohibit finite Gaussian curvature. The same counting argument leads to pairing of spatially varying modes at opposite wavenumber in triangulated origami, preventing topological polarization but permitting a family of zero energy deformations in the bulk that may be used to reconfigure the origami sheet.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2019

Topological elasticity of flexible structures

Flexible mechanical metamaterials possess repeating structural motifs that imbue them with novel, exciting properties including programmability, anomalous elastic moduli and nonlinear and robust response. We address such structures via micromorphic continuum elasticity, which allows highly nonuniform deformations (missed in conventional elasticity) within unit cells that nevertheless vary smoothly between cells. We show that the bulk microstructure gives rise to boundary elastic terms. Discrete lattice theories have shown that critically coordinated structures possess a topological invariant which determines the placement of low-energy modes on edges of such a system. We show that in continuum systems a new topological invariant emerges which relates the difference in the number of such modes between two opposing edges. Guided by the continuum limit of the lattice structures, we identify macroscopic experimental observables for these topological properties that may be observed independently on a new length scale above that of the microstructure.

cond-mat.soft↗