2013/12/13 by Tamoghna Das, Das, Tamoghna, Saswati Ganguly +5
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Material Dynamics and Properties #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Pickering emulsions and particle stabilization #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1312.3746
Submission contains manuscript (10 pages) and supplementary information (4 pages) in the same file. Revised manuscript contains new figures and text
openalex publication_date 2013/12/13 · arxiv created 2015/02/22 · arxiv updated 2015/02/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A crystalline solid exhibits thermally induced localised \em non-affine droplets in the absence of external stress. Here we show that upon an imposed shear, the size of these droplets grow until they percolate at a critical strain, well \em below the value at which the solid begins to yield. This critical point does not manifest in bulk thermodynamic or mechanical properties, but is \em hidden and reveals itself in the onset of inhomogeneities in elastic moduli, marked changes in the appearance and local properties of non-affine droplets and a sudden enhancement in defect pair concentration. Slow relaxation of stress and an-elasticity appear as observable dynamical consequences of this hidden criticality. Our results may be directly verified in colloidal crystals with video microscopy techniques but are expected to have more general validity.