Goldstone-type fluctuations and their implications for the amorphous solid state

Abstract

In sufficiently high spatial dimensions, the formation of the amorphous (i.e., random) solid state of matter, e.g., upon sufficent crosslinking of a macromolecular fluid, involves particle localization and, concomitantly, the spontaneous breakdown of the (global, continuous) symmetry of translations. Correspondingly, the state supports Goldstone-type low energy, long wavelength fluctuations, the structure and implications of which are identified and explored from the perspective of an appropriate replica field theory. In terms of this replica perspective, the lost symmetry is that of relative translations of the replicas; common translations remain as intact symmetries, reflecting the statistical homogeneity of the amorphous solid state. What emerges is a picture of the Goldstone-type fluctuations of the amorphous solid state as shear deformations of an elastic medium, along with a derivation of the shear modulus and the elastic free energy of the state. The consequences of these fluctuations---which dominate deep inside the amorphous solid state---for the order parameter of the amorphous solid state are ascertained and interpreted in terms of their impact on the statistical distribution of localization lengths, a central diagnostic of the state. The correlations of these order parameter fluctuations are also determined, and are shown to contain information concerning further diagnostics of the amorphous solid state, such as spatial correlations in the statistics of the localization characteristics. Special attention is paid to the properties of the amorphous solid state in two spatial dimensions, for which it is shown that Goldstone-type fluctuations destroy particle localization, the order parameter is driven to zero, and power-law order-parameter correlations hold.