# gst: interwoven long-range order induced by random fields.

<< (AA) propose a distinct type of long-range ordered phase that can occur in classical and quantum many-particle systems. It is induced by impurities and defects that locally break a subset of the order-parameter symmetries, i.e., by random-field disorder that couples to a composite vestigial order parameter. >>

<< The proposed ``implectic'' phase is characterized by spontaneous symmetry breaking on the background of the spatially interwoven domain structure created by the random fields. (They) explicitly demonstrate the existence of this phase in a layered J1−J2 Ising magnet by means of large-scale Monte Carlo simulations. (AA) then discuss numerous potential applications in systems featuring charge and spin density wave order including frustrated magnets, cuprate and iron-based superconductors, and ultracold atoms. >>

Jeremiah Bender, Thomas Vojta. Interwoven long-range order induced by random fields. arXiv: 2607.10337v1 [cond-mat.dis-nn]. Jul 11, 2026.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.10337

Also: particle, waves, order, disorder, fracture, crack, random, transition, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: gst, particle, waves, order, disorder, fracture, crack, transitions, impurities, defects, locally break, spontaneous symmetry breaking, random-field disorder, implectic long-range ordered phases.

# gst: hierarchical crack patterns; identification of crack generations.

<< ️Hierarchical crack patterns of various origins are ubiquitous in the world around us. (AA) reduce the problem of classifying crack generations in an image of a part of the entire hierarchical crack pattern to the well-known topological sorting of a directed acyclic graph. The classification demonstrates robustness to reasonable shifts in the pattern image boundaries. >>

Yuri Yu. Tarasevich, Andrei S. Burmistrov, Andrei V. Eserkepov. Hierarchical crack patterns: Identification of crack generations. arXiv: 2606.03473v1 [cond-mat.dis-nn]. Jun 2, 2026.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.03473

Also: crack, fracture, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: gst, crack, fracture, fragment of hierarchical crack pattern, topological sorting, root cracks, network 

fragment, hierarchical network structure.

# sound: screeching sound of peeling tape.

<< ️The screeching of peeling tape is a familiar albeit annoying sound. However, despite decades of study, its source has remained elusive. Herein (AA) demonstrate that this sound is produced by a discrete train of weak shocks emanating from the fine fractures which travel supersonically with respect to the surrounding air, in the transverse direction within the detaching adhesive. >>

<< ️Each sound pulse is generated when a fracture tip reaches the edge of the tape. (They) verify this using two microphones synchronized with clips from two simultaneous high-speed video cameras, one observing the fracture motions in the adhesive through the transparent substrate, while the other captures schlieren imaging of the shock fronts in the air. >>

Er Qiang Li, Paul W. Riker, Sriram Rengarajan, et al. Screeching sound of peeling tape. Phys. Rev. E 113, 025508. Feb 24, 2026.

https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/p19h-9ysx

Also: sound, noise, fracture, crack, jazz, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: sound, noise, fracture, crack, screeching, discrete train of weak shocks, jazz

# gst: cascade crack in chain of beads.

<< ️(AA) consider a homogeneous chain of spheres linked by liquid bridges under tension. The rupture of a single liquid bridge leads to a fragmentation cascade driven by the inverse relation between the capillary force and the sphere distances. The initial length of the liquid bridges determines the number and size of the fragments and the velocity of the fragmentation front. >>

Meysam Bagheri, Thorsten Pöschel. Cascade Crack in Chain of Beads. arXiv: 2508.01288v1 [cond-mat.soft]. Aug 2, 2025.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.01288

Phys. Rev. E 112, 045414. Oct 17, 2025.

https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/hzs3-8ffk

Also: crack, fracture, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: gst, crack, fracture, fragmentation cascade.

# gst: self-organized adaptive branching in frangible matter.

<< ️Soft and frangible materials that remodel under flow can give rise to branched patterns shaped by material properties, boundary conditions, and the time scales of forcing. (AA) present a general theoretical framework for emergent branching in these frangible (or threshold) materials that switch abruptly from resisting flow to permitting flow once local stresses exceed a threshold, relevant for examples as varied as dielectric breakdown of insulators and the erosion of soft materials. >>

<< ️Simulations in 2D and 3D show that branching is adaptive and tunable via boundary conditions and domain geometry, offering a foundation for self-organized engineering of functional transport architectures. >>

P.L.B. Fischer, J. Tauber, L. Mahadevan. Self-organized adaptive branching in frangible matter. arXiv: 2509.26101v1 [cond-mat.soft]. Sep 30, 2025.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.26101

Also: fracture, crack, self-assembly, transition, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: gst, fracture, crack, self-assembly, transitions, self-organized adaptive branching, soft-- frangible materials, emergent branching, branched patterns, resisting-- permitting flow, erosions.

# gst: dual role for heterogeneity in dynamic fracture.

<< ️(AA) approach the problem of heterogeneous dynamic fracture by considering spatiotemporal perturbations to planar crack fronts. Front propagation is governed by local energy balance between the elastic energy per unit area available to fracture 𝐺 and the dissipation in creating new surfaces. 𝐺 is known analytically as a perturbation series in the crack front fluctuation. >>

<< ️For dissipation that monotonically increases with the crack speed, (AA) derive an equation of motion for crack fronts that is second-order accurate. In the linear order, heterogeneity does not change the net speed of fracture. In the second order, nonlinear interactions of the front and the heterogeneous landscape populate an intermediate-scale fluctuation spectrum. >>

<< ️(AA) find that, when dissipation weakly grows with velocity, nonlinearities globally amplify dissipation and reduce the crack speed. Strong velocity dependence, however, mitigates toughening effects and may facilitate fracture. >>

Itamar Kolvin, Mokhtar Adda-Bedia, Dual Role for Heterogeneity in Dynamic Fracture. Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 106201. Sep 3, 2025.

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/j4vb-y1ng 

arXiv: 2407.02347v1 [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]. Jul 2,  2024.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.02347 

Also: fracture, crack, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: gst, fracture, crack, front propagation

# gst: apropos of monopoles with internal degrees of freedom

AA << ️consider a class of spontaneously broken SU(2) gauge theories with adjoint scalar and look for exact magnetic monopole solutions in the Bogomol'nyi--Prasad--Sommerfield (BPS) limit. (They) find that some of the resulting solutions exhibit a new internal degree of freedom (a moduli space parameter) that controls the energy density profile of the monopole while keeping the total energy (mass) constant. >>

Petr Beneš, Filip Blaschke. Magnetic monopoles with an internal degree of freedom. arXiv: 2507.13879v1 [hep-th]. Jul 18, 2025.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.13879

Also: particle, fracture, crack, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: gst, particles, magnetic particles, monopoles, degrees of freedom, spontaneous break, fracture, crack

# gst: early warning skill, extrapolation and tipping for accelerating cascades; if the upstream system crosses a tipping point, this can shorten the timescale of valid extrapolation.

AA << investigate how nonlinear behaviour (both of forcing in time and of the system itself) can affect the skill of early warning signals to predict tipping in (directionally) coupled bistable systems when using measures based on critical slowing down due to the breakdown of extrapolation. (They) quantify the skill of early warnings with a time horizon using a receiver-operator methodology for ensembles where noise realisations and parameters are varied to explore the role of extrapolation and how it can break down. >>

AA << highlight cases where this can occur in an accelerating cascade of tipping elements, where very slow forcing of a slowly evolving ``upstream'' system forces a more rapidly evolving ``downstream'' system. If the upstream system crosses a tipping point, this can shorten the timescale of valid extrapolation. >>

<< In particular, ``downstream-within-upstream'' tipping will typically have warnings only on a timescale comparable to the duration of the upstream tipping process, rather than the timescale of the original forcing. >>

Peter Ashwin, Robbin Bastiaansen, et al. Early warning skill, extrapolation and tipping for accelerating cascades.arXiv: 2506.01981v1 [nlin.CD]. May 16, 2025.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.01981

Also: crack, fracture, noise, track changes in noise, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: gst, climate, early warning, tipping prediction, accelerating cascade, crossing a tipping point, multiple tipping points, fragmented tipping, criticality, noise, noise-induced tipping, crack, fracture

# gst: defect-free and defective adaptations of crystalline sheets to stretching deformation.

<< The elastic response of the crystalline sheet to the stretching deformation in the form of wrinkles has been extensively investigated. In this work, (AA) extend this fundamental scientific question to the plastic regime by exploring the adaptations of crystalline sheets to the large uniaxial mechanical stretching. >>

AA << reveal the intermittent plastic shear deformations leading to the complete fracture of the sheets wrapping the cylinder. Specifically, systematic investigations of crystalline sheets of varying geometry show that the fracture processes can be classified into defect-free and defective categories depending on the emergence of topological defects. >>

AA << highlight the characteristic mechanical and geometric patterns in response to the large stretching deformation, including the shear-driven intermittent lattice tilting, the vortex structure in the displacement field, and the emergence of mobile and anchored dislocations as plastic excitations. >>

<< The effects of noise and initial lattice orientation on the plastic deformation of the stretched crystalline sheet are also discussed. These results advance our understanding of the atomic level on the irreversible plastic instabilities of two-dimensional crystals under large uniaxial stretching and may have potential practical implications in the precise engineering of structural instabilities in packings of covalently bonded particulate systems. >>

Ranzhi Sun, Zhenwei Yao. Defect-free and defective adaptations of crystalline sheets to stretching deformation. Phys. Rev. E 111, 055504. May 21, 2025.

https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.111.055504

Also: elastic, intermittency, noise, instability, vortex, defect, fracture, crack, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: gst, elastic, noise, intermittency, instability, vortex, defect, fracture, crack, stretch, deformation, wrinkles, tilting, plastic instabilities,  plastic excitations.

# gst: dynamics of fluid-driven fractures across material heterogeneities.

<< Fracture propagation is highly sensitive to the conditions at the crack tip. In heterogeneous materials, microscale obstacles can cause propagation instabilities. Macroscopic heterogeneities modify the stress field over scales larger than the tip region. >>

 Here AA << experimentally investigate the propagation of fluid-driven fractures through multilayered materials. (They) focus on analyzing fracture profiles formed upon injection of a low-viscosity fluid into a two-layer hydrogel block. >>

<< Experimental observations highlight the influence of the originating layer on fracture dynamics. Fractures that form in the softer layer are confined, with no penetration in the stiffer layer. Conversely, fractures initiated within the stiffer layer experience rapid fluid transfer into the softer layer when reaching the interface. >>

AA << report the propagation dynamics and show that it is controlled by the toughness contrast between neighboring layers, which drives fluid flow. (They) model the coupling between elastic deformation, material toughness, and volume conservation. After a short transient regime, scaling arguments capture the dependence of the fracture geometry on material properties, injection parameters, and time. These results show that stiffness contrast can modify fracture propagation over large length scales and demonstrate the importance of macroscopic scale heterogeneities on fracture dynamics. >>

Sri Savya Tanikella, Marie C. Sigallon, Emilie Dressaire. Dynamics of fluid-driven fractures across material heterogeneities. Phys. Rev. E 111, 025504. Feb 28, 2025.   https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.111.025504     arXiv: 2407.10298v1 [physics.flu-dyn]. Jul 14, 2024.  https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.10298

Also: fracture, crack, elastic, 

instability, disorder, transition, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: gst, fracture, crack, elasticity, instability, disorder, transitions

# gst: monitoring of stable crack growth; crack tip behavior at the nanoscale (during ceramic fracture).

<< To understand fracture and make brittle materials more ductile, (AA) rely on modeling what happens at a crack tip. However, observing a crack tip in a brittle material is challenging: cracks propagate fast, and the events that (AA) are interested in observing occur at the nanoscale or below. Up to now, (They) were not able to observe what happens ahead of a moving crack tip. >>

<< In this work, (AA) show how by carefully performing fracture experiments inside a transmission electron microscope (They) can grow stable cracks while observing the nanoscale events happening at the crack tip. >>️

Oriol Gavalda-Diaz, Max Emmanuel, et al. Observing the crack tip behavior at the nanoscale during fracture of ceramics. PNAS. 121 (43) e2408292121. Oct 17, 2024.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2408292121 

Also: fracture, crack, behav in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: gst, fracture, crack, behavior

# gst: critical crack length during fracture.

AA << established an inverse correlation between the strength of the material and the cracks which grow inside it—both the maximum crack and the one that sets in instability within the system, defined to be the critical crack. >>

AA << found that the maximum and the critical crack often differ from each other unless the disorder strength is extremely low. A phase diagram on the plane of disorder vs system size demarcates between the regions where the largest crack is the most vulnerable one and where they differ from each other but still show moderate correlation. >>️

Viswakannan R.K., Subhadeep Roy. Critical crack length during fracture. Phys. Rev. E 110, 024134. Aug 26, 2024.

https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.110.024134

Also: crack, instability, fluctuations, noise, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: gst, crack, instability, fluctuations, noise, criticality

# gst: elastomers fail from the edge.

<< The performance of soft devices is limited by the fracture resistance of elastomers. (..) A key observation is that thicker elastomers can be significantly tougher than thinner ones. (AA) show that this surprising toughness enhancement in thick samples emerges from the 3D geometry of the fracture process. In contrast to the classical picture of a 2D crack, failure is driven by the growth of two separate “edge” cracks that nucleate early on at a sample’s sides. As loading is increased, these cracks propagate in towards the sample midplane. When they merge, samples reach their ultimate failure strength. In thicker samples, edge cracks need to propagate farther before meeting, resulting in increased sample toughness. (AA) demonstrate that edge-crack growth is controlled by the elastomer’s strain-stiffening properties. >>

️

Nan Xue, Rong Long, Eric R. Dufresne, Robert W. Style. Elastomers Fail from the Edge. Phys. Rev. X 14, 011054. March 22, 2024. 

https://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.14.011054

Also: elastic, crack, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: gst, elastic, crack, elastomers, fracture

# gst: compression and fracture of ordered and disordered droplet rafts

AA << simulate a two-dimensional array of droplets being compressed between two walls. The droplets are adhesive due to an attractive depletion force. As one wall moves toward the other, the droplet array is compressed and eventually induced to rearrange. The rearrangement occurs via a fracture, where depletion bonds are quickly broken between a subset of droplets. >>

<< For monodisperse, hexagonally ordered droplet arrays, this fracture is preceded by a maximum force exerted on the walls, which drops rapidly after the fracture occurs. >>

<< In small droplet arrays a fracture is a single well-defined event, but for larger droplet arrays, competing fractures can be observed. These are fractures nucleated nearly simultaneously in different locations. >>

AA << also study the compression of bidisperse droplet arrays. The addition of a second droplet size further disrupts fracture events, showing differences between ideal crystalline arrays, crystalline arrays with a small number of defects, and fully amorphous arrays. >>

️

Pablo Eduardo Illing, Jean-Christophe Ono-dit-Biot, et al. Compression and fracture of ordered and disordered droplet rafts. Phys. Rev. E 109, 014610. Jan 17, 2024.

https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.109.014610

Also: drop, defect, fracture, crack, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html

Also:  raft   https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=raft  

zattera (quasi-stochastic poetry) https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2005/04/1864-onda-di-liberazione.html  

randa (quasi-stochastic poetry) https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=randa

Keywords: gst, drop, droplet, raft, defect, fracture, crack

# gst: when science meets poetry, an image of three-dimensional stepped cracks (bistability, and their transition to simple cracks)

<< Slow cracks may be simple, with no internal structure. The leading edge of a simple crack, the crack front, forms a single fracture plane in its wake. Slow cracks may also develop segmented crack fronts, each segment propagating along a separate fracture plane. These planes merge at locations that form steps along fracture surfaces. Steps are not stationary, but instead propagate within a crack front. Real-time measurements of crack front structure and energy flux reveal that step dynamics significantly increase energy dissipation and drastically alter crack dynamics. Simple and stepped cracks are each stable. By extending the use of energy balance to include 3D crack front structure, (AA) find that, while energy balance is obeyed, it is insufficient to select the energetically favorable crack growth mode. Transitions from stepped cracks to simple cracks occur only when their in-plane front lengths become equal and a perturbation momentarily changes step topology. Such 3D crack dynamics challenge our traditional understanding of fracture. >>

Meng Wang, Mokhtar Adda-Bedia, Jay Fineberg. Dynamics of three-dimensional stepped cracks, bistability, and their transition to simple cracks. Phys. Rev. Research 5, L012001. Jan 9, 2023. 

https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.L012001

Also

keyword 'crack' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=crack

keyword 'rottura' | 'crepa' | 'frattura' | 'rugosa' in Notes

(quasi-stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=rottura

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=crepa

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=frattura

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=rugosa

keywords 'meets poetry' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=meets+poetry

Keywords:  gst, transitions, dynamical phase transitions, crack, cracking,   fracture, roughness

# gst: apropos of instabilities, viscoelastic liquid bridges can be destabilized by torsion.

<< Liquid bridges are formed when liquids are constrained between two (or more) surfaces via the capillary force. They appear in a wide range of contexts including biology, medicine, and engineering. In the context of biology, liquid bridges enable animals like geckos to adhere to vertical walls (..) >>

<< By experiment and simulation, (AA) report that viscoelastic liquid bridges made of constant viscosity elastic liquids, a.k.a. Boger fluids, can be effectively destabilized by torsion. Under torsion, the deformation of the liquid bridge depends on the competition between elastocapillarity and torsion-induced normal stress effects. When the elastocapillary effect dominates, the liquid bridge undergoes elastocapillary instability and thins into a cylindrical thread, whose length increases and whose radius decays exponentially over time. When the torsion-induced normal stress effect dominates, the liquid bridge deforms in a way similar to edge fracture, a flow instability characterized by the sudden indentation of the fluid's free surface when a viscoelastic fluid is sheared at above a critical deformation rate. The vertical component of the normal stress causes the upper and lower portions of the liquid bridge to approach each other, and the radial component of the normal stress results in the liquid bridge thinning more quickly than under elastocapillarity. Whether such quick thinning continues until the bridge breaks depends on both the liquid bridge configuration and the level of torsion applied. >>️

San To Chan, Stylianos Varchanis, et al. Torsional instability of constant viscosity elastic liquid bridges. Soft Matter, 2022,18, 1965-1977. doi: 10.1039/ D1SM01804C. Feb 7, 2022. 

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2022/SM/D1SM01804C

image: https://twitter.com/softmatter/status/1504473129074126851

Also

keyword 'instability' | 'instabilities' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=instability

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=instabilities

keyword 'instabile' in Notes (quasi-stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=instabile

keyword 'torsione' in Notes (quasi-stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=torsione

keywords: instability, torsion, torsional instability, viscoelastic liquid, bridge

# gst: an atomic imaging of a (slow) crack

AA << successfully imaged the snapping of individual atomic bonds in a one-atom-thick sheet of rhenium disulfide ( ReS2) using scanning transmission electron microscopy. (STEM) >>

<< Because of its unusual chemistry, Re forms a 2D lattice with "lanes" that guide cracks, allowing the cracks to propagate with ease. The heavy element also efficiently deflects electrons, providing the signal needed to gain clear images. The study is a remarkable example of how a specific material can provide insight into the universal behavior of matter. >>

<< Because of its strong scattering, ReS2 provides an ideal target for STEM. (Interestingly, tungsten, the periodic-table neighbor of Re, has just one fewer proton and is routinely used in electron microscopy to stain viruses and bacterial flagella.)  >>

<< By measuring the deformation of the lattice around the crack, the team showed that the tearing stresses were concentrated around the crack tip. The stresses then decayed as the inverse square root of the distance from the tip, a finding that matches predictions for macroscopic materials. Using these measurements, the team defined a stress intensity threshold for cracks to propagate. >>

<< The images taken by Huang and colleagues used seconds-long exposure times, meaning they could only follow the propagation of the slowest crack (those that moved at a few angstroms per second). There is much interest in how faster cracks behave, as these cracks are subject to instabilities, meaning they can deviate from a straight line or form branches, for example. To observe faster cracks, future experiments could use reduced exposure times. >>

Itamar Kolvin. Atomic Imaging of Cracks. Physics 13, 193. Dec 9, 2020. 

https://physics.aps.org/articles/v13/193

Lingli Huang, Fangyuan Zheng, et al. In Situ Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy Observations of Fracture at the Atomic Scale. Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 246102. Dec 9, 2020.

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.246102

Also

(+)  the intriguing dynamics of a crack. Nov 7, 2017. 

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2017/11/gst-intriguing-dynamics-of-crack.html

(+) multiple cracks, simultaneously ... Oct 23, 2016.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2016/10/s-gst-multiple-cracks-simultaneously.html

(+) onda criptica. May 22, 2005 (quasi-stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2005/05/1641b-onda-criptica.html

(+) keyword "fracture" in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=fracture

# gst: temblors with a 'boomerang' effect

<< The temblor shot eastward across a deep gash in the seafloor, and then zipped back to where it started at incredible speeds. It moved so fast it created the geologic version of a sonic boom. >>

Maya Wei-Haas. Weird ‘boomerang’ earthquake detected under the Atlantic Ocean. Aug 10, 2020.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/08/weird-boomerang-earthquake-detected-under-atlantic-ocean/   

AA << present an analysis of the 2016 Mw 7.1 earthquake on the Romanche fracture zone in the equatorial Atlantic, (..) (They) show that this rupture had two phases: (1) upward and eastward propagation towards a weaker region where the transform fault intersects the mid-ocean ridge, and then (2) an unusual back-propagation westwards at a supershear speed towards the centre of the fault. (..) deep rupture into weak fault segments facilitated greater seismic slip on shallow locked zones. This highlights that even earthquakes along a single distinct fault zone can be highly dynamic. Observations of back-propagating ruptures are sparse, and the possibility of reverse propagation is largely absent in rupture simulations and unaccounted for in hazard assessments. >>

Hicks, S.P., Okuwaki, R., et al. Back-propagating supershear rupture in the 2016 Mw 7.1 Romanche transform fault earthquake. Nat. Geosci. (2020). doi: 10.1038/ s41561-020-0619-9. Aug 10, 2020.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-020-0619-9 

# chem: extreme superconductive in random atomic-scale mixture

<< High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are a new class of materials that are composed of multiple transition-metal elements in equimolar or near-equimolar ratios >>

<< many HEAs have been found in disordered solid-solution phases with body-centered-cubic, hexagonal closest-packed, and face-centered-cubic crystal structures >>

<< In many respects, HEAs display novel properties, including ultrahigh fracture toughness at cryogenic temperatures, excellent specific strength, and superior mechanical performance at high temperatures. In addition to their promising mechanical properties, some HEAs also exhibit interesting electronic properties: [TaNb]1−x(ZrHfTi)x HEAs were found to display superconductivity, for example >>

AA << report high-pressure studies on the superconducting HEA (TaNb)0.67(HfZrTi)0.33, [..] this alloy exhibits extraordinarily robust superconductivity - its zero-resistance superconducting state is still achieved even at a pressure of 190.6 GPa, or almost 2 megabars (1 Mbar = 1011 pascal), a pressure like that within the outer core of the earth. >>

Jing Guo, Honghong Wang, et al.  Robust zero resistance in a superconducting high-entropy alloy at pressures up to 190 GPa. PNAS 2017; 114 (50) 13144-7.  doi: 10.1073/pnas.1716981114.

http://www.pnas.org/content/114/50/13144

Laura Mgrdichian. A material that superconducts continuously up to extreme pressures.  Jan 17, 2018

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-01-material-superconducts-extreme-pressures.html

# gst: the intriguing dynamics of a crack

<< Cracks develop intricate patterns on the surfaces that they create >>

<< Although fracture mechanics predict that slow crack fronts should be straight and form mirror-like surfaces, facet-forming fronts propagate simultaneously within different planes separated by steps >>

Itamar Kolvin, Gil Cohen & Jay Fineberg. Topological defects govern crack front motion and facet formation on broken surfaces.  Nature Materials. doi: 10.1038/nmat5008 Oct 16, 2017

https://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmat5008.html

Novel technique reveals the intricate beauty of a cracked glass. Oct 31, 2017

http://new.huji.ac.il/en/article/35974

Intricate beauty of a cracked glass
Physics, math and special gels explain the formation of fracture patterns in brittle materials. Oct 31, 2017

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171031111457.htm