Edan Lerner - Research

When an external load is imposed on a solid - be it crystalline or amorphous - it initially responds elastically, and the deformation is simply proportional to the load. However, at some point, this simple relation between the load and deformation breaks down, and the solid begins to flow plastically when the load approaches the so-called yield stress, a phenomenon known as the yielding transition. Understanding this transition from a static, jammed state to a dynamic, flowing state is of utmost importance for endless industrial and technological applications: it is key to understanding how materials break.

The yielding transition is believed to belong to a class of non-equilibrium critical phenomena known as self-organized criticality -- a scenario in which systems dwell between the states of stability and instability. Many aspects of the yielding transition have yet to be explained. In my research I seek answers to questions such as: what are the fundamental mechanisms by which a solid can flow plastically? is there a universal principle by which the carriers of plasticity can be identified and their density quantified? what is the useful theoretical framework to understand the yielding transition and its dependence on external parameters (such as temperature, loading rate, etc.)? How does the phenomenon of yielding depend on the characteristics of the material under study? what are the relevant order parameters that will enter future theories of plasticity and yielding?

Related work:

Edan Lerner, Nicholas P. Bailey, Jeppe C. Dyre, Density scaling and quasiuniversality of flow-event statistics for athermal plastic flows, Phys. Rev. E 90, 052304 (2014), also: arXiv:1405.0156.
Jie Lin, Edan Lerner, Alberto Rosso, and Matthieu Wyart, Scaling description of the yielding transition in soft amorphous solids at zero temperature, PNAS 111, 14382 (2014), also arXiv:1403.6735.
Jie Lin, Alaa Saade, Edan Lerner, Alberto Rosso, and Matthieu Wyart, On the density of shear transformations in amorphous solids, Europhys. Lett. 105, 26003 (2014), also arXiv:1307.1646.
Smarajit Karmakar, Edan Lerner, Itamar Procaccia, and Jacques Zylberg, Effect of the interparticle potential on the yield stress of amorphous solids, Phys. Rev. E 83, 046106 (2011), also arXiv:1010.4687.
Smarajit Karmakar, Edan Lerner, and Itamar Procaccia, Statistical physics of the yielding transition in amorphous solids, Phys. Rev. E 82, 055103(R) (2010),also arXiv:1008.3967.
Smarajit Karmakar, Edan Lerner, Itamar Procaccia, and Jacques Zylberg, Statistical physics of elastoplastic steady states in amorphous solids: finite temperatures and strain rates, Phys. Rev. E 82, 031301 (2010), also arXiv:1006.3737.
Smarajit Karmakar, Edan Lerner, and Itamar Procaccia, Plasticity-induced anisotropy in amorphous solids: the Bauschinger effect, Phys. Rev. E 82, 026104 (2010), also arXiv:0910.4281.
Smarajit Karmakar, Anaël Lemaître, Edan Lerner, and Itamar Procaccia, Predicting plastic flow events in athermal shear-strained amorphous solids, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 215502 (2010), also arXiv:1002.3487.
H. G. E. Hentschel, Smarajit Karmakar, Edan Lerner, and Itamar Procaccia, Size of plastic events in strained amorphous solids at finite temperatures, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 025501 (2010), also arXiv:0908.2167.
Edan Lerner and Itamar Procaccia, Scaling theory for steady-state plastic flows in amorphous solids, Phys. Rev. E 80, 026128 (2009), also arXiv:0905.3319.
Edan Lerner and Itamar Procaccia, Locality and nonlocality in elastoplastic responses of amorphous solids, Phys. Rev. E 79, 066109 (2009), also arXiv:0901.3477.
Edan Lerner, Itamar Procaccia, Emily S. C. Ching, and H. G. E. Hentschel, Relations between material mechanical parameters and interparticle potential in amorphous solids, Phys. Rev. B 82, 180203(R) (2009), also arXiv:0902.4516.

Research Interests

Plastic flow of solids

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