title: Origin of the slow dynamics and the aging of a soft glass.
abstract: We study by light microscopy a soft glass consisting of a compact arrangement of polydisperse multilamellar vesicles. We show that its slow and nonstationary dynamics results from the unavoidable small fluctuations of temperature, which induce intermittent local shear deformations in the sample, because of thermal expansion and contraction. Temperature-induced shear provokes both reversible and irreversible rearrangements whose amplitude decreases with time, leading to an exponential slowing down of the dynamics with sample age.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire des Colloïdes, Verres et Nanomatériaux (UMR CNRS-UM2 5587), CC26, Université Montpellier 2, 34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France.
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mazoyer
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cipelletti
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ramos