Abstract
Numerous soft materials jam into an amorphous solid at high packing fraction. This non-equilibrium phase transition is best understood in the context of a model system in which particles repel elastically when they overlap. Recently, however, it was shown that introducing any finite amount of attraction between particles changes the universality class of the transition. The properties of this new ``sticky jamming'' class remain almost entirely unexplored. We use molecular dynamics simulations and scaling analysis to determine the shear modulus, bulk modulus, and coordination of marginal solids close to the sticky jamming point. In each case, the behavior of the system departs sharply and qualitatively from the purely repulsive case.
Highlights
Numerous soft materials jam into an amorphous solid at a high packing fraction
The relatively few studies of sticky soft spheres that are available reveal important differences from repulsive jamming: (i) Sticky particles jam at lower packing fractions, with structural signatures reminiscent of gels [14,15]; (ii) they form shear bands under conditions where repulsive particles do not [16,17,18,19]; and (iii) most tellingly, they belong to a distinct universality class [20]
We focus on packing fractions φ 0.81, well below φc(0), and rescale K in the same way we rescaled G in Fig. 2(b); namely, we plot K/|G0| vs α. (Note that while we choose to divide by |G0|, any multiple of | φ0|μ would work.) We look to see if, as in Eq (6), the rescaled data scale as α [1 − α−ν]ψ for some range of α
Summary
Numerous soft materials jam into an amorphous solid at a high packing fraction. This nonequilibrium phase transition is best understood in a model system where particles repel when they overlap. It was shown that introducing any finite amount of attraction between particles changes the universality class of the transition. We study critical scaling in marginally jammed packings of sticky disks [Fig. 1(a)] and show that they depart qualitatively from the repulsive jamming scenario in three distinct ways. For each attraction strength and packing fraction φ, calculated from the cores, systems are prepared by randomly placing particles in the unit cell and quenching to a local energy minimum using a nonlinear conjugate gradient algorithm [22].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
