title: Self-organization with equilibration: a model for the intermediate phase in rigidity percolation.
abstract: Recent experimental results for covalent glasses suggest the existence of an intermediate phase attributed to the self-organization of the glass network resulting from the tendency to minimize its internal stress. However, the exact nature of this experimentally measured phase remains unclear. We modified a previously proposed model of self-organization by generating a uniform sampling of stress-free networks. In our model, studied on a diluted triangular lattice, an unusual intermediate phase appears, in which both rigid and floppy networks have a chance to occur, a result also observed in a related model on a Bethe lattice by Barré et al[Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 208701 (2005)]. Our results for the bond-configurational entropy of self-organized networks, which turns out to be only about 2% lower than that of random networks, suggest that a self-organized intermediate phase could be common in systems near the rigidity percolation threshold.
authors.affiliation: Département de Physique, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succursale Centre-ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 3J7. mykyta.chubynsky@umontreal.ca
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Chubynsky
authors.forename: M-A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Brière
authors.forename: Normand
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mousseau