Relaxation and Rheology in Dense Athermal Suspensions

Abstract: We study relaxation and rheology of dense athermal suspensions of frictionless particles close below the jamming density. Our key quantity, the relaxation time---determined from the exponential decay of the energy after the shearing has suddenly been switched off---is argued to be a determining factor behind the algebraic divergence of various quantities as the jamming density is approached from below. We also define and measure the ``dissipation time'', which is obtained directly in shearing simulations and find that it behaves similarly to the relaxation time. Comparing shear viscosity with the expression for the dissipation time we identify a non-divergent factor that explains the need for correction terms in the scaling analyses of the shear viscosity.