Universal sound absorption in low-temperature amorphous solids.

Abstract

A general elastohydrodynamic theory is developed based on the phenomenological assumption of a sharp decrease of shear relaxation time at large wave vectors k>k(xi), where k(xi) is of order of inverse of several interatomic distances a. This theory describes the low-energy excitations of glassy and amorphous solids, which contribute to anomalous linear-in-temperature specific heat and limit phonon thermal conductivity. The ratio of the wavelength of the phonon, lambda, to its mean free path, l, which is the universal property of sound absorption in glasses, is derived in this theory to be lambda/l=(2/3)(c(t)/c(l))(2)(k(xi)a)(3), where c(t) and c(l) are transverse and longitudinal sound velocities correspondingly.