Oppenheim Award: Screened mechanics in anomalous mechanical systems

Mechanical systems that have mechanisms for local stress relaxation exhibit anomalous mechanical behavior falling outside the predictions of classic mechanical theories of fluids and solids. Some important examples of this type are disordered or granular solids, mechanical metamaterials, and cellular tissues.

In this talk, I will present a theoretical framework based on breaking different geometric conservation laws. From this framework, we derive a hierarchy of screening theories, analogous to electrostatic screening, that predict different behaviors based on the dominant screening modes. These predictions can then be compared to experimental observations.