Abstract

Glasses and gels are ubiquituous in our practical life and form when, in an initially liquid system, particles get stuck in a microscopically disordered state in which they are able to support external stresses. Because of the disorder, these solids have very special mechanical and transport properties and their understanding raise fundamental challenges for theoretical and technological developments from physics to material sciences. I will present recent developments in the study of gels and glasses by means of modeling and numerical simulations. In particular, I will consider the investigation of non-affine deformations of the inherent structures of supercooled liquids [1]; the different mechanisms for structural arrest in attractive colloidal systems [2]; the network induced relaxation dynamics in colloidal gels [3]. These studies show how different structural and dynamical heterogeneities characterize the jamming of the particles from the liquid into the disordered solid state and eventually affect the mechanical and transport properties of the solid. These features can have huge impact in designing smart materials for engineering applications.

[1] E. Del Gado, P. Ilg, M. Kroger and H. C. 0ttinger, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 095501 (2008); M. Mosayebi, E. Del Gado, P. Ilg and H. C. 0ttinger, preprint 2010.

[2] A. Zaccone, H. Wu and E. Del Gado, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 208301 (2009); A. Fierro, E. Del Gado, A. de Candia and A. Coniglio J. of Stat. Mech.: Theory and Exp., L04002 (2008).

[3] E. Del Gado and W. Kob, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 028303 (2007); J. of Non-Newt. Fluid Mech. 149, 28 (2008); Soft Matter (2010), DOI : 10.1039/b916813c.