2015/02/02 by Sven Wijtmans, Wijtmans, Sven, M. Lisa Manning +1
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn) #Earthquake Detection and Analysis #FOS: Physical sciences #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Geophysical and Geoelectrical Methods #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1502.00685
openalex publication_date 2015/02/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We develop a new method to isolate localized defects from extended vibrational modes in disordered solids. This method augments particle interactions with an artificial potential that acts as a high-pass filter: it preserves small-scale structures while pushing extended vibrational modes to higher frequencies. The low-frequency modes that remain are "bare" defects; they are exponentially localized without the quadrupolar tails associated with elastic interactions. We demonstrate that these localized excitations are excellent predictors of plastic rearrangements in the solid. We characterize several of the properties of these defects that appear in mesoscopic theory of plasticity, including their distribution of energy barriers, number density, and size, which is a first step in testing and revising continuum models for plasticity in disordered solids.