A Master equation for the probability distribution functions of forces in soft particle packings

Abstract

We study the microscopic response of force-chain networks in jammed soft particles to quasi-static isotropic (de)compressions by molecular dynamics simulations. We show that not only contacts but also interparticle gaps between the nearest neighbors must be considered for the stochastic evolution of the probability distribution functions (PDFs) of forces, where the mutual exchange of contacts and interparticle gaps, i.e. opening and closing contacts, are also crucial to the incremental system behavior. By numerically determining the transition rates for all changes of contacts and gaps, we formulate a Master equation for the PDFs of forces, where the insight one gets from the transition rates is striking: the mean change of forces reflects non-affine system responses, while their fluctuations obey uncorrelated Gaussian statistics. In contrast, interparticle gaps react mostly affine in average, but imply multi-scale correlations according to a much wider stable distribution function.