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Variable-amplitude oscillatory shear response of amorphous materials

Variable-amplitude oscillatory shear tests are emerging as powerful tools to investigate and quantify the nonlinear rheology of amorphous solids, complex fluids and biological materials. Quite a few recent experimental and atomistic simulation studies demonstrated that at low shear amplitudes, an amorphous solid settles into an amplitude- and initial conditions-dependent dissipative limit cycle, in which back-and-forth localized particle rearrangements periodically bring the system to the same state. At sufficiently large shear amplitudes, the amorphous system loses memory of the initial conditions, exhibits chaotic particle motions accompanied by diffusive behavior and settles into a stochastic steady-state. The two regimes are separated by a transition amplitude, possibly characterized by some critical-like features. Here we argue that these observations support some of the physical assumptions embodied in the nonequilibrium thermodynamic, internal-variables based, Shear-Transformation-Zone model of amorphous visco-plasticity; most notably that "flow defects" in amorphous solids are characterized by internal states between which they can make transitions, and that structural evolution is driven by dissipation associated with plastic deformation. We present a rather extensive theoretical analysis of the thermodynamic Shear-Transformation-Zone model for a variable-amplitude oscillatory shear protocol, highlighting its success in accounting for various experimental and simulational observations, as well as its limitations. Our results offer a continuum-level theoretical framework for interpreting the variable-amplitude oscillatory shear response of amorphous solids and may promote additional developments.