The history dependence of glasses formed from flow-melted steady states by a sudden cessation of the shear rate is studied in colloidal suspensions, by molecular dynamics simulations and by mode-coupling theory. In an ideal glass, stresses relax only partially, leaving behind a finite persistent residual stress. For intermediate times, relaxation curves scale as a function of t, even though no flow is present. The macroscopic stress evolution is connected to a length scale of residual liquefaction displayed by microscopic mean-squared displacements. The theory describes this history dependence of glasses sharing the same thermodynamic state variables but differing static properties.

From: M. Ballauff, J. M. Brader, S. U. Egelhaaf, M. Fuchs, J. Horbach,
N. Koumakis, M. Krüger, M. Laurati, K. J. Mutch, G. Petekidis, M. Siebenbürger, Th. Voigtmann and J. Zausch
“Residual Stresses in Glasses“,
Phys. Rev. Lett.
110(21), 215701 (2013).

This work is an “Editor’s Suggestion”
and
selected for a “Focus in Physics”
.