TY - JOUR T1 - Rigidity transition in materials: hardness is driven by weak atomic constraints. JF - Phys Rev Lett Y1 - 2015 A1 - Mathieu Bauchy A1 - Mohammad Javad Abdolhosseini Qomi A1 - Christophe Bichara A1 - Franz-Josef Ulm A1 - Roland Jean-Marc Pellenq AB -

Understanding the composition dependence of the hardness in materials is of primary importance for infrastructures and handled devices. Stimulated by the need for stronger protective screens, topological constraint theory has recently been used to predict the hardness in glasses. Herein, we report that the concept of rigidity transition can be extended to a broader range of materials than just glass. We show that hardness depends linearly on the number of angular constraints, which, compared to radial interactions, constitute the weaker ones acting between the atoms. This leads to a predictive model for hardness, generally applicable to any crystalline or glassy material.

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VL - 114 IS - 12 ER -