Category: Physics

Summary: Finding when localized defect softening captures the softest mode away from a boundary-prestressed edge in a disordered metamaterial.

Prestress can push a mechanical soft mode toward a boundary, while defects can pull softness into the bulk. This experiment asks how much local defect softening is needed before the softest mode leaves a prestress-stabilized boundary and becomes trapped around a defect instead.

The script constructs dense symmetric elastic operators for disordered metamaterials and then uses GPU iterative deepening to bisect the defect-capture threshold. By following the localization of the softest eigenmode, it identifies the point where bulk defect structure overcomes the boundary guidance created by prestress.

That distinction matters for programmable mechanical response, because a system can keep the same general stiffness scale while relocating where deformation concentrates. The experiment therefore maps a competition between boundary control and defect control in a finite disordered setting.

Method: GPU dense symmetric eigensolves with iterative deepening and bisection on defect softening in a prestressed disordered elastic operator.

What is measured: Critical defect-capture threshold, localization of the softest mode, boundary-versus-defect dominance, and bracket width.