Figure 1.

(a) Snapshots of the spontaneous shear strain (obtained during a time interval corresponding to 1% imposed global strain) during characteristic stages of shear deformation. The local shear strain first builds up homogeneously during the early elastic regime, where shear stress linearly grows with the externally imposed strain. A shear band is then formed as the stress reaches a maximum value. The shape of this SB slightly fluctuates during further stages of deformation (c, d), but its overall structure remains unchanged. The stress states corresponding to these snapshots are marked by blue diamonds, and the letters a, b, c and d on the stress-versus-strain plot in panel (b). The color bar gives the strain magnitude. These images (adapted) are taken from [21]. (b) The evolution of system averaged shear stress and temperature in the course of deformation is shown. For T, the corresponding data within the shear band and in the outer matrix (the region outside the shear band excluding walls) are also shown. The observation of a higher temperature inside SB is in line with the idea that heat is primarily generated there as compared to other parts of the sample. Note that T varies roughly by a factor of five between SB and the outer matrix.