Heterogeneous Viscoelasticity: A Combined Theory of Dynamic and Elastic Heterogeneity

Walter Schirmacher, Giancarlo Ruocco, and Valerio Mazzone
Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 015901 – Published 2 July 2015

Abstract

We present a heterogeneous version of Maxwell’s theory of viscoelasticity based on the assumption of spatially fluctuating local viscoelastic coefficients. The model is solved in coherent-potential approximation. The theory predicts an Arrhenius-type temperature dependence of the viscosity in the vanishing-frequency limit, independent of the distribution of the activation energies. It is shown that this activation energy is generally different from that of a diffusing particle with the same barrier-height distribution, which explains the violation of the Stokes-Einstein relation observed frequently in glasses. At finite but low frequencies, the theory describes low-temperature asymmetric alpha relaxation. As examples, we report the good agreement obtained for selected inorganic, metallic, and organic glasses. At high frequencies, the theory reduces to heterogeneous elasticity theory, which explains the occurrence of the boson peak and related vibrational anomalies.

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  • Received 25 June 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.015901

© 2015 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Walter Schirmacher1,2,3, Giancarlo Ruocco1,4, and Valerio Mazzone1

  • 1Dipartimento di Fisica, Universitá di Roma “La Sapienza”, P’le Aldo Moro 2, I-00185 Roma, Italy
  • 2Institut für Physik, Universität Mainz, Staudinger Weg 7, D-55099 Mainz, Germany
  • 3Institut für Theoretische Physik, Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck, Technikerstraße 25/2, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
  • 4Center for Life Nano Science@Sapienza, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, V. Regina Elena 291, I-00161 Roma, Italy

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Issue

Vol. 115, Iss. 1 — 3 July 2015

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