Effective Temperatures in Sheared Glassy Systems

ORAL

Abstract

One of the outstanding challenges in condensed matter physics is to describe the collective properties of many-body systems far out of equilibrium. Jammed systems belong in this category; even when they are steadily sheared and can explore different packing configurations, they are still out of equilibrium. Statistical mechanics is a powerful tool for understanding many-body systems at or near thermal equilibrium. I will discuss recent evidence that fluctuations in steadily-sheared systems near jamming can be described by “effective temperatures” that can be many orders of magnitude higher than the ambient temperature.

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Authors

  • Andrea Liu

    Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania

  • Ajay Gopinathan

    Dept. of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara

  • Tal Danino

    University of California, San Diego