Abstract
Elucidating mechanical deformation in glassy materials at the atomic level is challenging due to their disordered atomic structure. Using our frozen-atom analysis of the simulation data, we reveal that anelastic deformation in CuZr metallic glasses is fundamentally driven by cooperative atomic motions of tens of atoms elastically linked to one another, forming trigger groups. They initiate localized rearrangements, which can cascade into plastic flow. These cores show no clear structural or elastic precursors in the initial configuration, challenging the idea that deformation occurs in defective regions. Instead, deformation events are highly stochastic and transient, driven by collective atomic motion. This finding not only reshapes our understanding of glassy material deformation mechanisms but also highlights cooperative motion as a key factor in avalanche-like phenomena governing the behavior of disordered systems across multiple scales.
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Data availability
The data underlying the figures, including atomic structure data and associated derived quantities, have been deposited in Zenodo with DOI 10.5281/zenodo.1795899458. The complete set of atomic configurations exceeds 1 TB and cannot be deposited in a public repository due to size limitations. These data are preserved by the authors and may be accessed for non-commercial academic research by contacting the corresponding author (shiihara@toyota-ti.ac.jp). Requests will receive a response within 2 weeks, and the data will remain available for at least 5 years after publication.
Code availability
The implementations of the frozen-atom analysis are available in a Code Ocean capsule at DOI 10.24433/CO.2573501.v159.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas B, “Rheology of disordered structures: establishing Anankeon dynamics", JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 22B206, 22H05041, 22H05042, 22H05040, and 23K28105. T.E. was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division.
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Y.S. and T.I. conceived the research. Y.S. developed the modeling framework. Y.S. and T.I. performed the simulations and conducted the data analysis. Y.S. and T.E. developed further interpretation of the data and wrote the manuscript. N.A. and Y.T. provided advice on the physics of the system. All the authors discussed the results and contributed to the manuscript.
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Shiihara, Y., Iwashita, T., Adachi, N. et al. Cooperative atomic motion during shear deformation in metallic glass. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68308-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68308-4
