Nonaffine displacements below jamming under athermal quasistatic compression.

Abstract

Critical properties of frictionless spherical particles below jamming are studied using extensive numerical simulations, paying particular attention to the nonaffine part of the displacements during the athermal quasistatic compression. It is shown that the squared norm of the nonaffine displacement exhibits a power-law divergence toward the jamming transition point. A possible connection between this critical exponent and that of the shear viscosity is discussed. The participation ratio of the displacements vanishes in the thermodynamic limit at the transition point, meaning that the nonaffine displacements are localized marginally with a fractal dimension. Furthermore, the distribution of the displacement is shown to have a power-law tail, the exponent of which is related to the fractal dimension.