Microscopic analysis of sound attenuation in low-temperature amorphous solids reveals quantitative importance of non-affine effects

Abstract

Sound attenuation in low temperature amorphous solids originates from their disordered structure. However, its detailed mechanism is still being debated. Here we analyze sound attenuation starting directly from the microscopic equations of motion. We derive an exact expression for the zero-temperature sound damping coefficient. We verify that the sound damping coefficients calculated from our expression agree very well with results from independent simulations of sound attenuation. The small wavevector analysis of our expression shows that sound attenuation is primarily determined by the non-affine displacements' contribution to the sound wave propagation coefficient coming from the frequency shell of the sound wave. Our expression involves only quantities that pertain to solids' static configurations. It can be used to evaluate the low temperature sound damping coefficients without directly simulating sound attenuation.

arXiv commentChanged title, introduction and discussion expanded, 1 section, 1 figure and several references added; accepted for publication in J. Chem. Phys

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• Vibrational phenomena in glasses at low temperatures captured by field theory of disordered harmonic oscillators
• The Origin of Sound Damping in Amorphous Solids: Defects and Beyond
• Quasi-localized vibrational modes, Boson peak and sound attenuation in model mass-spring networks
• Scaling regimes and fluctuations of observables in computer glasses approaching the unjamming transition
• Properties of stable ensembles of Euclidean random matrices
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