Using numerical simulation of a 2D Lennard-Jones system, we study the crossover from shear thinning to Newtonian flow. We find that the short-time elastic response of our system essentially does not change through this crossover, and show that, in the Newtonian regime, thermal activation triggers shear transformations, i.e., local irreversible shear events that produce Eshelby (long-ranged, anisotropic) deformation fields as previously seen in low-$T$ glasses. Quite surprisingly, these Eshelby fields are found to persist much beyond the $\alpha$-relaxation time, and shear thinning to coincide with the emergence of correlations between shear relaxation centers.

• Received 6 November 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.066001