Highly accurate numerical simulations are employed to highlight the subtle but important differences in the mechanical stability of perfect crystalline solids versus amorphous solids. We stress the difference between strain values at which the shear modulus vanishes and strain values at which a plastic instability ensues. The temperature dependence of the yield strain is computed for the two types of solids, showing different scaling laws: ${\gamma }_{{}_Y}\simeq {\gamma }_{{}_Y}^0-C_1{T}^{1/3}$ for crystals versus ${\gamma }_{{}_Y}\simeq {\gamma }_{{}_Y}^0-C_2{T}^{2/3}$ for amorphous solids.

• Received 5 July 2015
• Revised 17 August 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.094105