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Methods of Ex Situ and In Situ Investigations of Structural Transformations: The Case of Crystallization of Metallic Glasses
Published on: June 7, 2018
Avalanche criticality emerges by thermal fluctuation in a quiescent glass
Yuki Takaha1, Hideyuki Mizuno1, Atsushi Ikeda1,2
1The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 3-8-1 Komaba, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan.
Abstract:
We investigate the avalanche dynamics of thermal relaxation in glassy systems after a rapid quench by molecular simulation. We find that the particle rearrangements show local rearrangements with long-range quadrupolar displacements, and their sizes follow a power-law distribution satisfying a simple scaling relation. These results imply the relation between thermal relaxation of glassy systems, and avalanches in sheared amorphous solids and a recent theory on the thermal elastoplastic model. However, we also observe the properties unpredicted by the previous theories, including the smaller exponent of the distribution and the non-power-law growth of avalanche size against system size. Our results suggest that by viewing a glass as a thermally driven elastoplastic material, we can understand dynamics below the glass transition point, such as aging.
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