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Title: Memory formation in matter

Journal Article · · Reviews of Modern Physics
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5]
  1. California Polytechnic State Univ. (CalPoly), San Luis Obispo, CA (United States)
  2. Syracuse Univ., NY (United States)
  3. ESPCI PSL Research Univ., Paris (France)
  4. Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru (India)
  5. Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)

Memory formation in matter is a theme of broad intellectual relevance; it sits at the interdisciplinary crossroads of physics, biology, chemistry, and computer science. Memory connotes the ability to encode, access, and erase signatures of past history in the state of a system. Once the system has completely relaxed to thermal equilibrium, it is no longer able to recall aspects of its evolution. The memory of initial conditions or previous training protocols will be lost. Thus many forms of memory are intrinsically tied to far-from-equilibrium behavior and to transient response to a perturbation. This general behavior arises in diverse contexts in condensed-matter physics and materials, including phase change memory, shape memory, echoes, memory effects in glasses, return-point memory in disordered magnets, as well as related contexts in computer science. Yet, as opposed to the situation in biology, there is currently no common categorization and description of the memory behavior that appears to be prevalent throughout condensed-matter systems. Here the focus is on material memories. Here, the basic phenomenology of a few of the known behaviors that can be understood as constituting a memory will be described. The hope is that this will be a guide toward developing the unifying conceptual underpinnings for a broad understanding of memory effects that appear in materials.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-03ER46088
OSTI ID:
1609487
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1545428
Journal Information:
Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 91, Issue 3; ISSN 0034-6861
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 113 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Geometry and kinetics determine the microstructure in arrested coalescence of Pickering emulsion droplets journal January 2019
Noise spectra in the reversible–irreversible transition in amorphous solids under oscillatory driving journal September 2019
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Potential energy states and mechanical properties of thermally cycled binary glasses journal April 2019
Viewing Earth’s surface as a soft-matter landscape journal October 2019
Coherent light matter interactions in nanostructure based active semiconductor waveguides operating at room temperature journal December 2019
Directed aging, memory, and nature’s greed journal December 2019
Noise spectra in the reversible-irreversible transition in amorphous solids under oscillatory driving text January 2019
Networks and Hierarchies: How Amorphous Materials Learn to Remember text January 2019
Multiperiodic orbits from interacting soft spots in cyclically-sheared amorphous solids text January 2021