Fig. 3: Percolation of force-bearing particles across the nonequilibrium glass transition.
From: Emergent solidity of amorphous materials as a consequence of mechanical self-organisation
a–c Spatial distribution of force-bearing particles at different temperatures in the solid phase (a), at the critical temperature (b), and in the liquid regime (c). Configurations are from a cooling rate of γ = 10−4. Particles in the same force-bearing network are clustered and coloured according to the cluster size Nc. Clusters with <3 particles are not shown for clarity. d Temperature dependence of percolation probability P for different γ. The γ-dependent nonequilibrium glass transition is signalled by the percolation of force-bearing particles. Inset: Collapse of P from different γ when replotted as a function of the fraction of force-bearing particles f. e Temperature dependence of the relative size of the largest force-bearing cluster ψ = s1/N for different γ, with s1 being the number of particles involved in the largest cluster. A strong similarity can be seen in comparison with the integrated stress-stress correlation in Fig. 1c. Inset: Collapse of ψ from different γ when replotted as a function of f. Therefore, while the percolation of force-bearing particles is controlled by T with different functional forms depending on γ, it is uniquely determined by f.
