{"id":222516,"date":"2025-09-26T04:26:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T09:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/topology-reveals-the-hidden-rules-of-amorphous-materials-softness-arises-from-hierarchical-structures"},"modified":"2025-09-26T04:26:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T09:26:49","slug":"topology-reveals-the-hidden-rules-of-amorphous-materials-softness-arises-from-hierarchical-structures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/topology-reveals-the-hidden-rules-of-amorphous-materials-softness-arises-from-hierarchical-structures","title":{"rendered":"Topology reveals the hidden rules of amorphous materials: Softness arises from hierarchical structures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/topology-reveals-the-hidden-rules-of-amorphous-materials-softness-arises-from-hierarchical-structures3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Why do glass and other amorphous materials deform more easily in some regions than in others? A research team from the University of Osaka, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Okayama University, and the University of Tokyo has uncovered the answer.<\/p>\n<p>By applying a mathematical method known as persistent homology, the team demonstrated that these soft regions are governed by hidden hierarchical structures, where ordered and disordered <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/atomic+arrangements\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">atomic arrangements<\/a> coexist.<\/p>\n<p>Crystalline solids, such as salt or ice, have atoms neatly arranged in repeating patterns. Amorphous materials, including glass, rubber, and certain plastics, lack this <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/long-range+order\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">long-range order<\/a>. However, they are not completely random: they possess medium-range order (MRO), subtle atomic patterns that extend over a few nanometers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why do glass and other amorphous materials deform more easily in some regions than in others? A research team from the University of Osaka, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Okayama University, and the University of Tokyo has uncovered the answer. By applying a mathematical method known as persistent homology, the [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2229,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mathematics","category-particle-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}