title: Free volume under shear.
abstract: Using an athermal quasistatic simulation protocol, we study the distribution of free volumes in sheared hard-particle packings close to, but below, the random-close packing threshold. We show that under shear, and independent of volume fraction, the free volumes develop features similar to close-packed systems - particles self-organize in a manner as to mimick the isotropically jammed state. We compare athermally sheared packings with thermalized packings and show that thermalization leads to an erasure of these structural features. The temporal evolution in particular the opening-up and the closing of free-volume patches is associated with the single-particle dynamics, showing a crossover from ballistic to diffusive behavior.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Theoretical Physics, Georg-August University of Göttingen, Friedrich-Hund Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Moumita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maiti
authors.affiliation: Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research, Jakkur Campus, Bengaluru 560064, India.
authors.forename: H A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Vinutha
authors.affiliation: Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research, Jakkur Campus, Bengaluru 560064, India.
authors.forename: Srikanth
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sastry
authors.affiliation: Institute for Theoretical Physics, Georg-August University of Göttingen, Friedrich-Hund Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Claus
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Heussinger