title: Avalanches in strained amorphous solids: does inertia destroy critical behavior?
abstract: Simulations are used to determine the effect of inertia on athermal shear of amorphous two-dimensional solids. In the quasistatic limit, shear occurs through a series of rapid avalanches. The distribution of avalanches is analyzed using finite-size scaling with thousands to millions of disks. Inertia takes the system to a new underdamped universality class rather than driving the system away from criticality as previously thought. Scaling exponents are determined for the underdamped and overdamped limits and a critical damping that separates the two regimes. Systems are in the overdamped universality class even when most vibrational modes are underdamped.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
authors.forename: K Michael
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Salerno
authors.forename: Craig E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Maloney
authors.forename: Mark O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Robbins