title: Fluctuation-stabilized marginal networks and anomalous entropic elasticity.
abstract: We study the elastic properties of thermal networks of Hookean springs. In the purely mechanical limit, such systems are known to have a vanishing rigidity when their connectivity falls below a critical, isostatic value. In this work, we show that thermal networks exhibit a nonzero shear modulus G well below the isostatic point and that this modulus exhibits an anomalous, sublinear dependence on temperature T. At the isostatic point, G increases as the square root of T, while we find G∝Tα below the isostatic point, where α≃0.8. We show that this anomalous T dependence is entropic in origin.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, VU University, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dennison
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sheinman
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Storm
authors.forename: F C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: MacKintosh