title: Observation of the Kibble-Zurek Mechanism in Microscopic Acoustic Crackling Noises.
abstract: Characterizing the fast evolution of microstructural defects is key to understanding "crackling" phenomena during the deformation of solid materials. For example, it has been proposed using atomistic simulations of crack propagation in elastic materials that the formation of a nonlinear hyperelastic or plastic zone around moving crack tips controls crack velocity. To date, progress in understanding the physics of this critical zone has been limited due to the lack of data describing the complex physical processes that operate near microscopic crack tips. We show, by analyzing many acoustic emission events during rock deformation experiments, that the signature of this nonlinear zone maps directly to crackling noises. In particular, we characterize a weakening zone that forms near the moving crack tips using functional networks, and we determine the scaling law between the formation of damages (defects) and the traversal rate across the critical point of transition. Moreover, we show that the correlation length near the transition remains effectively frozen. This is the main underlying hypothesis behind the Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) and the obtained power-law scaling verifies the main prediction of KZM.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas at Arlington, 500 Yates St. Arlington, TX 76019.
authors.forename: H O
authors.initials: HO
authors.lastname: Ghaffari
authors.affiliation: University of Texas at Arlington, 500 Yates St. Arlington, TX 76019.
authors.forename: W A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Griffth
authors.affiliation: Rock Mechanics Laboratory, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Burnaby building, Portsmouth, PO1 3QL, UK.
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Benson
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil Engineering and Lassonde Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, 170 College Street, M5s3e3, On, Canada.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil Engineering and Lassonde Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, 170 College Street, M5s3e3, On, Canada.
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Young