2014/11/30 by Patrick Charbonneau, P. Charbonneau, E. I. Corwin +5
Engineering · Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Ambiguity #Computer science #Condensed matter physics #Critical dimension #Critical exponent #Critical phenomena #Criticality #Exponent #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Geometry #Instability #Jamming #Material Dynamics and Properties #Mathematics #Mechanics #Phase transition #Physics #Power law #Quantum mechanics #SPHERES #Scale invariance #Scaling #Sports Dynamics and Biomechanics #Statistical physics #Theoretical physics #cond-mat.dis-nn #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.114.125504
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 125504 (2015) · 12 pages, 4 figures
openalex publication_date 2015/03/27 · arxiv created 2015/04/20 · arxiv updated 2015/04/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Recent theoretical advances offer an exact, first-principles theory of jamming criticality in infinite dimension as well as universal scaling relations between critical exponents in all dimensions. For packings of frictionless spheres near the jamming transition, these advances predict that nontrivial power-law exponents characterize the critical distribution of (i) small interparticle gaps and (ii) weak contact forces, both of which are crucial for mechanical stability. The scaling of the interparticle gaps is known to be constant in all spatial dimensions d-including the physically relevant d=2 and 3, but the value of the weak force exponent remains the object of debate and confusion. Here, we resolve this ambiguity by numerical simulations. We construct isostatic jammed packings with extremely high accuracy, and introduce a simple criterion to separate the contribution of particles that give rise to localized buckling excitations, i.e., bucklers, from the others. This analysis reveals the remarkable dimensional robustness of mean-field marginality and its associated criticality.