Plastic response of a 2D Lennard-Jones amorphous solid: Detailed analysis of the local rearrangements at very slow strain rate

We analyze in detail the atomistic response of a model amorphous material submitted to plastic shear in the athermal, quasi-static limit. After a linear stress-strain behavior, the system undergoes a noisy plastic flow. We show that the plastic flow is spatially heterogeneous. Two kinds of plastic events occur in the system: quadrupolar localized rearrangements, and shear bands. The analysis of the individual motion of a particle shows also two regimes: a hyper-diffusive regime followed by a diffusive regime, even at zero temperature.