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Thermally activated nonaffine rearrangements in amorphous glass: Emergence of intrinsic length scales

Avinash Kumar Jha

Phys. Rev. E 114, 025503 – Published 18 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/mnlq-52g1

Abstract

We present a systematic study of temperature-driven nonaffine rearrangements in a model amorphous solid across the full thermodynamic range, from a high-temperature liquid through supercooled and subglass regimes into deeply glassy states. By subtracting the best local affine map from the particle displacements, we obtain componentwise nonaffine residuals whose exponential tails yield the characteristic length scales ξNA,x and ξNA,y. For comparison, we compute the Van Hove self-distributions Gx(ux) and Gy(uy) of the total particle displacement and extract the corresponding Van Hove length scale ξVH. A central result is that ξVH>ξNA for all temperatures, densities, and temporal-sampling protocols studied here, and our companion analytical derivation verifies this ordering at the model level. Notably, the particle-level nonaffine field itself reveals distinct dynamical regimes: appreciable nonaffine activity persists below the thermodynamic glass-transition temperature, indicating a mechanically active viscoelastic regime, whereas deep in the glass the field becomes strongly suppressed, signaling a mechanically locked state. The near equality of ξNA,x and ξNA,y further shows that the thermally driven nonaffine rearrangements are isotropic. Overall, the present work provides a particle-level framework for quantifying thermal nonaffinity and for distinguishing mechanically active and mechanically locked regimes in amorphous materials.

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