1302.6152 (Evan Hohlfeld)

Coexistence of scale invariant states in a scale free system    [PDF]

Evan Hohlfeld

Soft solids, such as elastomers, have an instability toward the nucleation and growth of sharply creased surface folds. We develop an analogy between this instability and a first order phase transition by constructing an isolated fold as a domain wall-like structure separating two, coexisting scale invariant deformations of an incompressible elastomer: an affine deformation, and a crease. We relate the existence of this surface folding instability and the striking non-existence of a phase boundary separating the two scale invariant deformations to certain convexity properties of the elastomer free energy.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.6152