Simple views on symmetries and dualities in the theory of elasticity

Abstract

Microscopic symmetries impose strong constraints on the elasticity of a crystalline solid. In addition to the usual spatial symmetries captured by the tensorial character of the elastic tensor, hidden non-spatial symmetries can occur microscopically in special classes of mechanical structures. Examples of such non-spatial symmetries occur in families of mechanical metamaterials where a duality transformation relates pairs of different configurations. We show on general grounds how the existence of non-spatial symmetries further constrains the elastic tensor, reducing the number of independent moduli. In systems exhibiting a duality transformation, the resulting constraints on the number of moduli are particularly stringent at the self-dual point but persist even away from it, in a way reminiscent of critical phenomena.

5 pages, 3 figures + SI