Research Interests
Complex systems, such as soft matter (e.g., colloids, gels, polymers, and granular materials), biological systems (ranging from proteins, single cells, to living bodies and ecologies), and complex networks (e.g., message-processing network in the internet and human mind, and neural network for learning and decision-making) show fascinating characteristics that are fundamentally beyond the description of current college textbooks.
Different approaches can be adopted to build up basic understandings of the complex physical world. As a promising starting point, the research in our lab is currently focused on the Simplest Systems with True Complexity (i.e., soft matter composed of simple components), with the "Exploration of Order in Disorder" as a central theme. Concepts deeply involved in the understanding of such systems (e.g., marginal stability, metastability, rigidity, ergodicity, criticality and self-organized criticality) may provide keys to the more complex physical world.
Revealing
Hidden order in amorphous solids
- Hua Tong, Hao Hu, Peng Tan, Ning Xu, and Hajime Tanaka, “Revealing inherent structural characteristics of jammed particulate packings”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 215502 (2019).
- Hua Tong, Peng Tan, and Ning Xu, “From crystals to disordered crystals: a hidden order-disorder transition”, Scientific Reports 5, 15378 (2015).
- Hua Tong and Ning Xu, “Order parameter for structural heterogeneity in disordered solids”, Phys. Rev. E 90, 010401(Rapid Communication) (2014).
Hidden structural order in supercooled liquids when approaching the glass transition in equilibrium
- Hua Tong and Hajime Tanaka, “Role of attractive interactions in structure ordering and dynamics of glass-forming liquids”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 225501 (2020).
- Hua Tong and Hajime Tanaka, “Structural order as a genuine control parameter of dynamics in simple glass formers”, Nature Commun. 10, 5596 (2019).
- Hajime Tanaka, Hua Tong (co-first and corresponding author), Rui Shi, and John Russo, “Revealing key structural features hidden in liquids and glasses”, Nature Rev. Phys. 1, 333 (2019).
- Hua Tong and Hajime Tanaka, “Revealing hidden structural order controlling both fast and slow glassy dynamics in supercooled liquids”, Phys. Rev. X 8, 011041 (2018).
Hidden order across the nonequilibrium glass transition
- Hua Tong, Shiladitya Sengupta, and Hajime Tanaka, “Emergent solidity of amorphous materials as a consequence of mechanical self-organisation”, Nature Commun. 11, 4863 (2020).
- Xiunan Yang, Hua Tong (co-first author), Wei-Hua Wang, and Ke Chen, “Emergence and percolation of rigid domains during colloidal glass transition”, Phys. Rev. E 99, 062610 (2019).
Understanding
Nature of amorphous solids: jamming criticality, marginal stability, self-organized criticality, instability, plasticity, low-frequency quasilocalized modes, nonaffinity, etc
- Hua Tong, Hao Hu, Peng Tan, Ning Xu, and Hajime Tanaka, “Revealing inherent structural characteristics of jammed particulate packings”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 215502 (2019).
- Hongchuan Shen, Hua Tong, Peng Tan, and Lei Xu, “A universal state and its relaxation mechanisms of long-range interacting polygons”, Nature Commun. 10, 1737 (2019).
- Yunhuan Nie, Hua Tong, Jun Liu, Mengjie Zu, and Ning Xu, “Role of disorder in determining the vibrational properties of mass-spring networks”, Frontiers of Physics 12, 126301 (2017).
- Hua Tong and Ning Xu, “Order parameter for structural heterogeneity in disordered solids”, Phys. Rev. E 90, 010401(Rapid Communication) (2014).
Dynamics of supercooled liquids: dynamic heterogeneity, two-step relaxations, nonexponential relaxations, non-Arrhenius divergence of alpha relaxation time, etc
- Hua Tong and Hajime Tanaka, “Role of attractive interactions in structure ordering and dynamics of glass-forming liquids”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 225501 (2020).
- Hua Tong and Hajime Tanaka, “Structural order as a genuine control parameter of dynamics in simple glass formers”, Nature Commun. 10, 5596 (2019).
- Hajime Tanaka, Hua Tong (co-first and corresponding author), Rui Shi, and John Russo, “Revealing key structural features hidden in liquids and glasses”, Nature Rev. Phys. 1, 333 (2019).
- Hua Tong and Hajime Tanaka, “Revealing hidden structural order controlling both fast and slow glassy dynamics in supercooled liquids”, Phys. Rev. X 8, 011041 (2018).
Emergent solidity of amorphous materials: rigidity percolation, long-range correlations, fractal energy landscape, etc
- Hua Tong, Shiladitya Sengupta, and Hajime Tanaka, “Emergent solidity of amorphous materials as a consequence of mechanical self-organisation”, Nature Commun., in press (2020).
- Xiunan Yang, Hua Tong (co-first author), Wei-Hua Wang, and Ke Chen, “Emergence and percolation of rigid domains during colloidal glass transition”, Phys. Rev. E 99, 062610 (2019).
Design
The amorphous structure of glassy materials provides us with infinite degrees of freedom to manipulate for desirable functions, which can be of great importance in engineering and industrial applications. Such an ability to design complex systems is built on a deep understanding of "Order".
- Jun Liu, Yunhuan Nie, Hua Tong, and Ning Xu, “Realizing negative Poisson’s ratio in spring networks with close-packed lattice geometries”, Phys. Rev. Materials 3, 055607 (2019).
- Yunhuan Nie, Hua Tong, Jun Liu, Mengjie Zu, and Ning Xu, “Role of disorder in determining the vibrational properties of mass-spring networks”, Frontiers of Physics 12, 126301 (2017).
- Hua Tong, Peng Tan, and Ning Xu, “From crystals to disordered crystals: a hidden order-disorder transition”, Scientific Reports 5, 15378 (2015).
