Echoes of the glass transition in athermal soft spheres

Abstract: Recent theoretical advances have led to the creation of a unified phase diagram for the thermal glass and athermal jamming transitions. This diagram makes clear that, while related, the mode-coupling---or dynamic---glass transition is distinct from the jamming transition, occurring at a finite temperature and significantly lower density than the jamming transition. Nonetheless, we demonstrate a pre-jamming transition in athermal frictionless spheres which occurs at the same density as the mode-coupling transition and is marked by percolating clusters of locally rigid particles. At this density in both the thermal and athermal systems, individual motions of an extensive number of particles become constrained, such that only collective motion is possible. This transition, which is well below jamming, exactly matches the definition of collective behavior at the dynamical transition of glasses. Thus, we reveal that the genesis of rigidity in both thermal and athermal systems is governed by the same underlying topological transition in their shared configuration space.