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The Solid Became Irreversible Without Becoming Chaotic
Rare choices between nearly equal plastic instabilities, not sustained exponential divergence, split otherwise nearby trajectories.
Summary
Rare choices between nearly equal plastic instabilities, not sustained exponential divergence, split otherwise nearby trajectories.
In simulations of cyclically sheared amorphous solids, small perturbations decayed locally even after the material entered an irreversible regime. Nearby trajectories remained close until a rare branching event changed which nearly degenerate instability fired first; separation then grew diffusively. A mean-field soft-spot model reproduced the branching statistics. The result offers a mechanism for deterministic irreversibility distinct from ordinary chaos.
Why it matters
Rare choices between nearly equal plastic instabilities, not sustained exponential divergence, split otherwise nearby trajectories.
Limits and context
No additional limitation was separately recorded.
Key claims
Rare choices between nearly equal plastic instabilities, not sustained exponential divergence, split otherwise nearby trajectories.
Evidence: source-2026-08-12-015
Sources
- arXiv preprint 2608.11073arXiv · primary research
Corrections
No corrections have been recorded for this story.