Avalanche Size Scaling in Sheared Three-Dimensional Amorphous Solid

We study the statistics of plastic rearrangement events in a simulated amorphous solid at T=0. Events are characterized by the energy release and the “slip volume”, the product of plastic strain and system volume. Their distributions for a given system size L appear to be exponential, but a characteristic event size cannot be inferred, because the mean values of these quantities increase as L^α with α∼3/2. In contrast with results obtained in 2D models, we do not see simply connected avalanches. The exponent suggests a fractal shape of the avalanches, which is also evidenced by the mean fractal dimension and participation ratio.