title: Shear banding of colloidal glasses: observation of a dynamic first-order transition.
abstract: We demonstrate that application of an increasing shear field on a glass leads to an intriguing dynamic first-order transition in analogy with equilibrium transitions. By following the particle dynamics as a function of the driving field in a colloidal glass, we identify a critical shear rate upon which the diffusion time scale of the glass exhibits a sudden discontinuity. Using a new dynamic order parameter, we show that this discontinuity is analogous to a first-order transition, in which the applied stress acts as the conjugate field on the system's dynamic evolution. These results offer new perspectives to comprehend the generic shear-banding instability of a wide range of amorphous materials.
authors.affiliation: van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Chikkadi
authors.affiliation: van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Miedema
authors.affiliation: van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Dang
authors.affiliation: van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nienhuis
authors.affiliation: van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schall