Thermalized connectivity networks of jammed packings

Abstract

Jammed packings of repulsive elastic spheres have emerged as a rich model system within which the elastic properties of disordered glassy materials may be elucidated. Most of the work on these packings has focused on the case of vanishing temperature. Here, we explore the elastic properties of the associated connectivity network for finite temperatures, ignoring the breaking of bonds and the formation of new ones. Using extensive Monte Carlo simulations, we find that, as the temperature is increased, the resulting spring network shrinks and exhibits a rapidly softening bulk modulus via a cusp. Moreover, the shear modulus stiffens in a fixed volume ensemble but not in a fixed pressure ensemble. These counter-intuitive behaviors may be understood from the characteristic spectrum of soft modes near isostaticity, which resembles the spectrum of a rod near its buckling instability. Our results suggest a generic mechanism for negative thermal expansion coefficients in marginal solids. We discuss some consequences of bond breaking and an apparent analogy between thermalization and shear.