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Condensed Matter Seminar - "Memory and Plasticity in Amorphous Solids"

Event Type
Seminar/Symposium
Sponsor
Physics - Condensed Matter
Location
ESB 190
Date
Mar 7, 2025   1:00 pm  
Speaker
Nathan Keim, Pennsylvania State University
Contact
Stephen Bullwinkel
E-Mail
bullwink@illinois.edu
Phone
217-333-1652
Views
6
Originating Calendar
Physics - Condensed Matter Seminar

While we are all familiar with retaining information in a computer or our minds, memory is an essential quality of many more non-equilibrium systems around us. We consider what information is stored in the arrangement of the particles in a 2D solid adsorbed at an oil-water interface. When this material is sheared repeatedly, it finds a steady state in which rearrangements repeat and particles move in closed loops. Even after this motion is interrupted by changing the shear frequency or reducing the amplitude, these trajectories can usually be recovered by resuming the original driving. Remarkably, this property gives the material a detailed memory of multiple past deformations. I discuss what this memory shows us about the physics of individual rearrangements and their interactions. Finally, I touch on the many more memory behaviors that come from the same ingredients of hysteresis and interactions, in natural and designed systems. 

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