Mechanical criticality of fiber networks at a finite temperature

Abstract: At zero temperature, spring networks with connectivity below Maxwell's isostatic threshold undergo a mechanical phase transition from a floppy state at small strains to a rigid state for applied shear strain above a critical strain threshold. Disordered networks in the floppy mechanical regime can be stabilized by entropic effects at finite temperature. We develop a scaling theory based on a real-space renormalization approach for this mechanical phase transition at finite temperature, yielding relationships between various scaling exponents. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we verify these scaling relations and identify anomalous entropic elasticity with sub-linear $T$-dependence in the linear elastic regime. While our results are consistent prior studies of phase behavior near the isostatic point, the present work also makes predictions relevant to the broad class of disordered thermal semiflexible polymer networks for which the connectivity generally lies far below the isostatic threshold.