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Multiple transient memories in experiments on sheared non-Brownian suspensions
Joseph D Paulsen1, Nathan C Keim2, Sidney R Nagel3
1Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA and Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA and James Franck Institute and Department of Physics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
Abstract:
A system with multiple transient memories can remember a set of inputs but subsequently forgets almost all of them, even as they are continually applied. If noise is added, the system can store all memories indefinitely. The phenomenon has recently been predicted for cyclically sheared non-Brownian suspensions. Here we present experiments on such suspensions, finding behavior consistent with multiple transient memories and showing how memories can be stabilized by noise.
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