Finite-size study of the athermal quasistatic yielding transition in structural glasses

In a study, researchers test the veracity of these two scenarios using the massively parallel LAMMPS library. They perform athermal quasistatic shear (AQS) of two models in three-dimensions (3D), a binary and a polydisperse glass. The binary glasses were cooled down to zero temperature using different quench rates, while their polydisperse systems were quenched from liquid configurations equilibrated at low temperatures via SWAP Monte Carlo. To quantify the degree of mechanical disorder of the different models on the same footing, the researchers employ Schirmacher’s N-independent disorder quantifier. It is observed that deeply annealed glasses exhibit a macroscopic discontinuous stress drop (MDSD) for systems of merely N = 16 k particles. It is also observed that smaller systems made with the same protocol do not feature a MDSD.