Floppiness, cutting, and freezing: Dynamic critical scaling near isostaticity

Abstract

The isostatic state plays a central role in organizing the response of many amorphous materials. We demonstrate the existence of a dynamic critical length scale in nearly isostatic spring networks that is valid both above and below isostaticity and at finite frequencies, and use scaling arguments to relate the length scale to viscoelastic response. We predict theoretically and verify numerically how proximity to isostaticity controls the viscosity, shear modulus, and creep of random networks.