Paper detail

The Role of Local Structure in the Enhanced Dynamics of Deformed Glasses

External stress can accelerate molecular mobility of amorphous solids by several orders of magnitude. The changes in mobility are commonly interpreted through the Eyring model, which invokes an empirical activation volume whose origin remains poorly understood. Here, we analyze constant-stress molecular dynamics simulations and propose an extension of the Eyring model with a machine-learned field, softness. Our model connects the activation volume, an empirical parameter, to a structural property (softness). We show that stress has an inhomogeneous effect on the mobility that depends on local structure, which explains the narrower distribution of relaxation time observed under stress.