title: Minimal integer automaton behind crystal plasticity.
abstract: Power law fluctuations and scale-free spatial patterns are known to characterize steady state plastic flow in crystalline materials. In this Letter we study the emergence of correlations in a simple Frenkel-Kontorova-type model of 2D plasticity which is largely free of arbitrariness, amenable to analytical study, and is capable of generating critical exponents matching experiments. Our main observation concerns the possibility to reduce continuum plasticity to an integer-valued automaton revealing inherent discreteness of the plastic flow.
authors.affiliation: LMS, CNRS-UMR 7649, Ecole Polytechnique, Route de Saclay, 91128 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: Oğuz Umut
authors.initials: OU
authors.lastname: Salman
authors.forename: Lev
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Truskinovsky