Phys Rev Lett. 2026 May 22;136(20):206101. doi: 10.1103/6n5m-rxc1.
ABSTRACT
Plastic deformation in amorphous solids is carried by localized shear transformations that self-organize into avalanches. In amorphous carbon modeled with a machine-learned interatomic potential, we find that the energetics and organization of these avalanches can be resolved by systematically following the underlying energy landscape. With a pseudoarclength numerical continuation framework, we decompose avalanches into constituent shear transformations and determine their strain-dependent energetics. Our analysis shows that, prior to onset, avalanches have a latent structure that consists of well-separated local minima. We further demonstrate that arclength continuation yields an event driven framework for following avalanche dynamics, eliminating time-step effects on statistical avalanche properties such as distributions of stress drops.
PMID:42251541 | DOI:10.1103/6n5m-rxc1
