Force distribution affects vibrational properties in hard-sphere glasses.

ABSTRACT: We theoretically and numerically study the elastic properties of hard-sphere glasses and provide a real-space description of their mechanical stability. In contrast to repulsive particles at zero temperature, we argue that the presence of certain pairs of particles interacting with a small force f soften elastic properties. This softening affects the exponents characterizing elasticity at high pressure, leading to experimentally testable predictions. Denoting P(f) ~ f(θ(e)), the force distribution of such pairs and ϕ(c) the packing fraction at which pressure diverges, we predict that (i) the density of states has a low-frequency peak at a scale ω*, rising up to it as D(ω) ~ ω(2+a), and decaying above ω* as D(ω) ~ ω(-a) where a = (1 - θ(e))/(3 + θ(e)) and ω is the frequency, (ii) shear modu

SUBMITTER: DeGiuli E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4260553 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature