Paper detail

Universal Sound Attenuation in Amorphous Solids at Low-Temperatures

Disordered solids are known to exhibit quantitative universalities at low temperatures, the most striking of which is the ultrasonic attenuation coefficient Q. The established theory of tunneling two state systems (TTLS) in its original form (i.e. without extra fitting functions and parameters), is unable to explain this universality. While the TTLS model can be modified, particularly by including long range phonon induced interactions to explain the universal value of Q, (a) it is not clear that the essential features of the original model that has been successful in explaining the experimental data is preserved, and (b) even if it is, it is not clear that the postulates of the original model remain necessary. The purpose of this study is to derive the universal acoustic absorption and related quantities observed in disordered solids by starting from a many-body quantum theory of unspecified amorphous blocks that mutually interact through the strain field. Based on very generic assumptions and having no adjustable fitting parameters, the frequency and initial state averaged macroscopic attenuation of a group of interacting disordered blocks is calculated in the low temperature regime by a novel "trace method", which then is iterated up-to experimental length scales through a real space renormalization group approach. Then using a heuristic second-order perturbation argument, the frequency dependence of Q is found, and combined with the previous result to yield the observed universal values in the MHz-Ghz range of frequencies. It is concluded that strong microscopic postulates are not necessary in order to explain the thermal conductivity, velocity shift and sound attenuation of disordered media in the low temperature regime.