Breakdown of Nonlinear Elasticity in Stress-Controlled Thermal Amorphous Solids

Abstract

In recent work it was clarified that amorphous solids under strain control do not possess nonlinear elastic theory in the sense that the shear modulus exists but nonlinear moduli exhibit sample to sample fluctuations that grow without bound with the system size. More relevant however for experiments are the conditions of stress control. In the present Communication we show that also under stress control the shear modulus exists but higher order moduli show unbounded sample to sample fluctuation. The unavoidable consequence is that the characterization of stress-strain curves in experiments should be done with a stress-dependent shear modulus rather than with nonlinear expansions.