We investigate generic inequalities of various contributions to the shear modulus $μ$ in ensembles of amorphous elastic bodies. We focus first on a simple elastic network model with connectivity matrices (CMs) which are either annealed or quenched, at or out of equilibrium. The stress-fluctuation formalism relation for $μ$ is rewritten as $μ= μ_1 + μ_a$ with $μ_1 \ge 0$ characterizing the variance of the quenched shear stresses and $μ_a$ being a simple average over all states and CMs. For equilibrium CM-distributions $μ_a$ becomes equivalent to the shear modulus of annealed systems, i.e. $μ_a \ge 0$, while more generally $μ_a$ may become strongly negative as shown by considering a temperature quench and a scalar active two-temperature model. Consistent relations are also found for glass-forming colloids where $μ-μ_1=μ_a=0$ for equilibrium ensembles, i.e. $μ$ is set by the quenched shear stresses, while $μ_a$ becomes again negative otherwise.
Wave localization is ubiquitous in disordered media -- from amorphous materials, where soft-mode localization is closely related to materials failure, to semi-conductors, where Anderson localization leads to metal-insulator transition. Our main understanding, though, is based on discrete models. Here, we provide a continuum perspective on the wave localization in two-phase disordered elastic media by studying the scalar wave equation with heterogeneous modulus and/or density. At low frequencies, soft modes arise as a result of disordered elastic modulus, which can also be predicted by the loca…
We study the elastic response of concentrated suspensions of rigid wire frame particles to a step strain. These particles are constructed from infinitely thin, rigid rods of length $L$. We specifically compare straight rod-like particles to bent and branched wire frames. In dense suspensions the wire frames are frozen in a disordered state by the topological entanglements between their arms. We present a simple, geometric method to find the scaling of the elastic stress with concentration in these glassy systems. We apply this method to a simple 2D model system where a test particle is placed …